IEC to Release 2021 Municipal Election Results Today, ANC Less Than 50%

President Cyril Ramaphosa will later today attend the announcement of the final results of the 2021 Municipal Elections, which are likely to show the ANC with less than 50% of the vote for the first time since 1994.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) will make the announcement after South Africans headed to the polls to elect a new municipal political leadership on Monday. Special votes were cast on 30 and 31 October.

By 8:19am on Thursday, vote counting had received 97%.

These elections were the sixth local government elections held in South Africa, since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The final results will be revealed at the Results Operations Centre at the Tshwane Events Centre, Pretoria.

According to the IEC website, all had reached 95% and above of vote counting. Leading the charge was the Free State with all votes accounted for in the province. Hot on its heels was the North West, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal at 99%. A percent behind was Gauteng and the Northern Cape at 98%. Not far off was Limpopo and the Eastern Cape at 97%. The Western Cape lagged behind at 89%.

A breakdown of the figures sees the ANC, with 45.94% of the votes, securing the control of 114 of the 155 councils where it had a majority vote. The DA comes in second with 21.15% of the vote. The party will control 11 of the 23 councils it had a secure percentage. Hung municipalities will require coalition governments between parties represented in the respective councils. The third largest party was the EFF, with 10.38% of the vote. However, the party controls no councils nor does it have a majority lead in any of the country’s 257 councils.

The third party with most councils was the IFP, controlling eight of the 13 councils it had majority votes.

A total 64 councils were hung, which was a significant increase from the 29 in the 2016 Local Government Elections.

The announcement ceremony, which will be broadcast live, commences at 6pm.

The Presidency said President Ramaphosa, in his capacity as President of the Republic, will deliver brief remarks during the ceremony.

The Presidency said: “These elections enabled voters to exercise their democratic right and civic duty to elect new leadership and influence service delivery where they live.” – SAnews.gov.za