Elections Live Blog (10/05)

IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo briefing media on the counting progress of votes, Results Operations Centre, Pretoria. South Africa. 09/05/2019. Siyabulela Duda

Welcome to the third day of The Daily Vox’s elections live blog. We’re bringing you live updates as votes are counted. We’ll mostly be based at the Results Operation Centre in Pretoria.

You can also follow our reporters on Twitter: Shaazia EbrahimFatima Moosa and Lizeka Maduna.

The National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure announced on Friday that arrests have been made in relation to alleged voter fraud. “Two people, a journalist and a woman have been arrested after a video was posted claiming that they have cast votes more than once. On the day of the elections, 8 May 2019 Etienne Mare (52) posted a video claiming that he was on his way to vote for a second time after hearing from Malinda Halloway (57) that she had been ‘able to do so herself,'” the structure said.

“The arrest of these two suspects brings the total to 24 the number of suspects arrested for the alleged contravention of Electrate Act pertaining to attempted double votes and double votes.”

17:10 The ACM’s Hlaudi Motsoeneng is still remonstrating with journalists about a “stolen election.” The micro party protest doesn’t appear to have legs, as of late Friday afternoon…

16:50 Lizeka Maduna also covers the difficulty that a voter with a visual impairement on Wednesday.

16:15 Read our analyses of the winners and losers of the 2019 elections:

15:30 With 72% of the vote counted for Gauteng, it is beginning to look like the ANC will be fine after all..

13:05 The African Transformation Movement, which was founded by
the South African Council of Messianic Churches in Christ, at this point, looks set to get one parliamentary seat. It also now has more vote than Patricia de Lille’s GOOD party.

Read our coverage of ATM:

12:40 The protests by the micro parties continue. Now numbering 35 out of the 48 registered party are contesting the election figures. They say in some cases, their own votes were not recorded at voting stations were they voted. The group is calling for an independent audit.

12:05 Meanwhile, Maimane appears to have the backing of the Eastern Cape provincial party leader Athol Trollip.

11:55 “I’m not worried at all. I’ll allow other leaders to speak for themselves,” says DA leader Mmusi Maimane, after rumours that he was going to be forced out due to the party’s poor electoral performance.

11:35 Meanwhile in Cape Town, the Freedom Front Plus’ Peter Marais appears to go completely off-script on the question of the redistribution of land…

10:39 Read Shaazia Ebrahim’s explainer on the controversy over alleged voter fraud, which was kicked up by the micro parties last night.

10:16 One race to keep an eye on is Gauteng, as the ANC inches closer over the years to below 50%, and the opposition inch up in turn… Only 59% of the votes have been counted. Which way will those late ballots swing it?

08:00 As it currently stands, with 75% of the votes counted, it looks like the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance will struggle to reach the same percentage votes as the last national elections. The Economic Freedom Fighters have easily beaten their total vote count from last time, and look like making strong gains on the 6.35% it got.

The electoral map as of Friday morning. (Source: The IEC)

07:50 You can catch all of yesterdays’ action in our second day live blog: