SOUTH Africa’s 2016 Municipal Elections, in which over 200 parties participated were free and fair, the Electoral Commission (IEC) Chairperson Glen Mashinini declared as he announced the final results on Saturday.

“It is my privilege to declare the 2016 Local Government Elections free and fair,” he told a packed national Results Operations Centre, in Pretoria.

Releasing the results in what would be regarded as the country’s most fiercely contested municipal elections since the first democratic local government elections, Mashinini said the results were a testament to the will of the electorate.

“We have sent a message to our own people and the world that we are a maturing democracy,” he said.

Speaking earlier, the Commission’s Chief Electoral Officer Mosotho Moepya said that among the commission’s targets was to register over 1.1 million new voters, a target that was surpassed to over 1.3 million new voters.

Voter turnout in these elections improved slightly from 57.6 per cent in 2011 to at least 58 per cent.

• The eThekwini metro in KwaZulu-Natal remains the stronghold of the ANC with the final seat calculation placing the party firmly on top with a comfortable 126 seats to the DA’s 61 seats. The IFP received 10 seats in that council.