According to the Secretary-General, Ace Magashule, hopes are high that the ANC will retain most seats in parliament and provincial legislatures.

Speaking to OFM News at the IEC Results Operations Centre in Bloemfontein, Magashule confirmed that they have been disappointed by a low turnout of voters on election day, but is confident the ANC will win.

This, despite predictions by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) that the party will win 57.3% of the national vote and will drop below 50% in Gauteng, based on voting trends thus far.

The government scientific research body has predicted that both the ANC and the DA will get a lower proportion of the vote than in the 2014 election, in which the ANC won 62.1% and the DA 22.1%.

The EFF is expected to grow to 9.5% from just 6% in 2014, and show the strongest growth as compared to other political parties.

Besides enjoying having a stronghold in provinces such as the Free State, real challenges loom for the ANC in Gauteng, where the CSIR anticipates it will get approximately 48% making a coalition government in the province inevitable.

Magashule, nonetheless, says they are not in talks over coalitions and they have these elections “in the pocket”.

OFM News