By 10am Thursday, South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) seemed destined to retain its majority hold on the National Assembly after voting tallies at about 30 percent of voting districts in the country had been captured on the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) results system.

The votes counted and captured stood at nearly 3.7 million, with the ANC obtaining nearly 55 percent of the vote, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 26 percent. If the trend continues throughout the day, this would mean the ANC would see its significant majority reduced and support for the DA increasing by a few percentage points from 22 percent of the vote in the 2014 polls to over 26 percent.

Early indications are that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) might see an increase in its support from the six percent it obtained in 2014, with currently more than 8% of the vote.

The Freedom Front Plus are surprise contenders in the top five race, having obtained more than 115,000 votes so far, but this could change as the counting and capturing process for more than two-thirds of voting districts was not yet complete.

The Citizen