Pretoria – The African National Congress (ANC) leads the fifth democratic elections with a majority of 62.16%, according to preliminary results released by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Friday.
The official number will be released by the IEC at its national Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Pretoria at 6pm today.
The party received 11 436 654 votes, which was less than the 11 650 748 votes (65.9%) it received in 2009.
For a political party to obtain one seat in Parliament it needs about 0.25% of the national vote, or between 37 000 and 50 000 actual votes, depending on voter turnout.
The National Assembly was first elected in South Africa's first non-racial election in 1994 with the ANC winning 252 of the 400 seats.
In the election of 1999, the ANC won 266 seats, one short of the two-thirds majority needed to unilaterally amend the constitution. In the election of 2004, the ANC obtained 279 seats, gaining a two-thirds majority and the ability to change the constitution
The Democratic Alliance, which remains second, increased its support nationally from 16.66% in 2009 to 22.22% (4 089 043 votes), while the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) garnered the third highest support with 6.35% (1 160 208 vote).
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) and the Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO) seem to have run out as the two former liberation movements failed to secure a parliamentary seat in the 2014 General Elections.
The PAC pulled 0.21% from 37 784 votes, while AZAPO only manage to get 0.11% from 20 421 votes. The PAC’s break-away, the African People’s Convention (APC) led by Themba Godi, also failed to secure a parliamentary seat after pulling 0.17% from 30 676 votes.
The only organisation which dropped the majority of seats is the Congress of the People (COPE), which managed to get 0.67%, which leaves them with only three seats. In 2009, Cope obtained 30 seats.
The other party which dropped seats is the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which had 18 seats in 2009 and this time they only manage to get nine seats.
However, the three new political parties which will be in Parliament are the EFF, National Freedom Party (NFP) and the little known African Independent Congress (AIC).
The EFF is on third position with 6.35%, the NFP pulled 1.57%, while the AIC beats hands down Agang SA with 0.53, which guaranteed them two seats. Agang SA only managed to get one seat.
On Friday, political analyst Somadoda Fikeni told SAnews that it was possible that some voters may have unintentionally voted for the AIC, thinking they were voting for the ANC.
The AIC appeared just above the ANC on this year's ballot papers, and the party's colours also resemble those of the ANC - black, yellow, green and white. - SAnews.gov.za
