JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- As counting of the votes began on Tuesday, South Africa's Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Sy Mamabolo said 90 percent of the results would be finalized by this evening.
"The Northern Cape has completed 74 percent of its results, followed by Western Cape at 46 percent and in the third position comes the Free State at 26 percent. The rest of the provinces' completion rate range between 15 and 37 percent," he said at a briefing in Pretoria on Tuesday, "The balance of 10 percent would take another 24 hours to complete."
S. Africans voted for 2021 local government elections on Monday with the turnout estimated to be 48 percent, much lower that the 57 percent in 2016.
At Tuesday noon, as results began trickling in, the DA was leading in the Cape Town metro, followed by the ANC, and expected to win 50 percent of the vote there.
In Gauteng's three municipalities, the ANC led in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, while the DA led in Tshwane. However, it was not clear whether there would be an outright winner in these metros.
Mamabolo said the results would be announced on Thursday. Enditem