Close to 90 Percent of Votes Captured

19 May 2011

Almost 89 percent of votes in the local government elections have been captured, but major metros were still outstanding, chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula said on Thursday.

“As at 2pm this afternoon 51,642 of the 58,158 results slips were already captured. This constitutes 88.8 percent of the results slips expected,” she said at the results operation centre in Pretoria.

Of these, 71 percent had been audited and released.

“A number of results in metropolitan councils are however still outstanding…. ,” she said.

Buffalo City had released 85 percent, Nelson Mandela Bay 99 percent and Ekurhuleni 95 percent.

Johannesburg was on 20 percent, Mangaung 50 percent, Tshwane 56 percent, Ethekwini 22 percent, and the City of Cape Town on 34 percent.

Tlakula said preliminary voter turnout was 56 percent and two percent of ballots were spoilt.

She emphasised, however, that this eight percent increase in voter turnout from the previous election was preliminary, especially as the metro results were not yet in.

“It is too early for us to talk about voter turnout,” she said.

There had been no official objections to the results, although two parties had said they might lodge complaints, she said.

There would be a recount of votes in one of the wards in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng.

The Independent Electoral Commission expected to complete capturing and validating results on Friday and declare the results on Saturday.

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