Counting in Steve Tswete has halted and the official election results for both national and provincial governments, are expected to be announced on Saturday by the IEC. Shortly before going to print, Middelburg’s chief electoral officer, Mr Willie Fouché, released the preliminary results for Steve Tshwete Municipality where 75,26% of the 107 877 registered voters cast their provincial ballots, compared to the 79,82% who turned up for the national poll.
Out of 86 109 votes cast by Middelburg residents, altogether 1009 votes were spoilt leaving 85 100 to share between the parties.
Nationally, the ANC obtained a large majority of the vote with overall 66,64 % or 56 707 votes, followed by the DA with 20,53% or 17 467 votes in total.
Julius Malema’s EFF obtained 8,24 % of the votes, translating in 7008 votes cast for the party individually.
In fourth position is the FF+ with a total of 1394 votes or 1,64% of the cake, followed by the National Freedom Party with 0,52%, ACDP with 0,46 %, African Independent Congress with 0,43 and IFP with 0,39 % of ballots cast.
Provincially, the ANC garnered 66,28 % of Middelburg’s vote, followed by the DA with 21,85% of total votes cast and the EFF with 8,2 % of provincial ballots cast.
Freedom Front supporters cast 1244 provincial ballots, securing 1,55 % of votes, followed by the ACDP with 0,47 %, the NFP with 0,36 % and COPE with 0,25%.
According to preliminary statistics the DA showed growth all round with between 3 and 4 %.
• The Middelburg Observer will report on the full results, and the allocation of seats in parliament, national council of provinces and provincial legisalture, next week.
