The results of the 2024 National and Provincial Elections will be announced today, despite the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) saying last night they would consider challenging the results in court if the objections made by it and other parties were not taken seriously.

Just after 09:00, the Electoral Commission of South Africa, known as the IEC, announced on X that it would announce the results at 18:00.

In a media briefing late last night, the IEC said they had received 579 objections. Of these, 56 met the criteria of valid objections while the rest were complaints.

Also last night, former president Jacob Zuma told media gathered at the national results centre that he hopes the commission will take its concerns seriously because ‘if that does not happen, then we must go to court’.

“The complaints that have been put forward are serious,” he said. “I hope we have been heard, we the parties.”

He said a commission of inquiry was needed to look into the circumstances surrounding the IEC’s systems going down on Friday. “There have been numbers that have been pushed from one direction to another and that must come out.”

He added that they need time to present their misgivings. “There is no rush; nobody is going to die if we don’t announce the results tomorrow,” he said.

He stressed several times that their request to be heard was being done in a ‘comradely’ manner, but said that ‘nobody is going to announce [the results] tomorrow’.

While the IEC’s 18:00 briefing is eagerly anticipated, what is already known is that South Africa’s political future involves the establishment of coalitions, after the ANC failed to secure a majority for the first time since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.

Parties now have two weeks to decide who they want to work with and to establish their coalitions. The Constitution provides that, after a general election, the first sitting of the National Assembly must take place within 14 days of the election results being declared.

In a recent media statement, Government Communications said: “By law, the election results must be declared within seven days after an election, and the official election results will be announced by the IEC, and this period ends on June 5.”

The statement explained that following the declaration of election results, members for the National Assembly are designated by the IEC, and the lists are handed by the commission to South Africa’s chief justice, who then hands them over to Parliament. The president is the last to be elected by the house because the assembly ‘must be duly constituted first to exercise its power to elect the president’.

Watch the IEC’s briefing: Follow the live stream on the IEC’s Facebook, X, or YouTube channels (@IECSouthAfrica).