Opposition gains support as local election results trickle in

By mid-afternoon on Wednesday with about half of the 15,000 voting districts having reported results, South Africa’s landmark local elections were shaping into a two-way race between the ruling African National congress (ANC) and the newly formed opposition Democratic alliance (DA) SABC reported. Marred by a low turnout and the killing of six voters at a squatter camp near Johannesburg, early indications was that support for the DA has grown in urban areas, at the expense of the ANC.

The ANC had polled 59.7 percent of the popular vote nationally, compared with 29.8 percent for the DA. In third place was Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), with 3.9 percent of the popular vote. But officials of South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission said that they did not expect to release final results for the election that has laid to rest apartheid-era municipal boundaries until early on Thursday morning. The ANC has, as predicted, won five of the six ‘metro councils’- new cities with budgets larger than the provinces in which they lie - with the DA taking the Western Cape metro council.