EC first off the block as election results announced

The Eastern Cape was the first province to officially release results from the 2024 national and provincial elections.

The results were from the Bizana Baptist Church voting station in the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela municipality for the national ballot.

They showed that the ANC was leading with 99 votes, followed by the EFF with 29 votes and the MK party with 17 votes.

Other parties, such as Bosa, IFP and ATM each got one vote.

The results were welcomed with applause by IEC staff stationed at the East London Results Operation Centre.

The announcement came shortly after midnight.

Eastern Cape provincial electoral officer, Kayakazi Magudumana, a few moments before that, told the media that voting was complete, except for four voting stations in Makhanda.

“There are no incidents that have been reported so far. There are three stations in Nelson Mandela where we had to change the counting stations, reasons there was a security issue that we were alerted to,” she said.

She said the shooting was around the stations and they decided on the move when the incidents did not subside while it was getting dark.

Magudumana attributed the long lines experienced at voting stations to the high voter turnout.

She denied that the long queues were a result of technological glitches.

“We have never seen or managed before [such a large turnout] as the commission. The electoral commission was established in 1997 and the first election we managed was in 1999,” she said.

Magudumana also expressed sadness that community members in two stations in Ntabankulu could not vote because community protests had led to the resignation of presiding officers over intimidation.

Police had to take over the station but Magudumana said residents were denied their votes because protestors were stationed outside the voting stations.

DispatchLIVE