Voter turnout in all but one province was above 70 percent. In the Limpopo 69,62 percent of the registered voters turned up to vote.

Nationally 23,181,997 registered to vote, a record high number, according to the IEC.

Mpumalanga had the highest voter turnout, with 1,363,836 or 80,38 percent of the 1,696,705 registered voters actually casting their ballots.

In the Eastern Cape, 3,056,559 voters registered to participate and 2,344,098 (76,69 percent) of these turned up at the polls.

The Free State saw 1,388,588 voters registered and 1,069,127 (76,99 percent) actually voting.

In Gauteng, 5,555,159 voters registered and 4,391,699 (79,06 percent) actually voted while in KwaZulu Natal 2,256,073 voters registered and 1,570,592 (69,62 percent) turned up to cast their ballots.

In the North West 1,564,357 voters registered and 1,135,701 or 72,60 percent actually voted. In the Northern Cape, 554,900 voters registered with 421,490 (75,96 percent) while in the Western Cape 2,634,439 voters registered and 2,049,097 (77,78 percent) actually voted. – Sapa

ANC spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said the party did not need such a majority and never said it wanted one.

“We have always been very clear that we wanted a decisive win… The ANC never called for a two-thirds majority, we are quite happy with the mandate the people have given us,” he said from the centre after IEC chief electoral officer, Pansy Tlakula announced that the vote count had been completed.

The ANC received a 65.90 percent win of the 17,680,729 valid votes cast. It received the support of 11,650,748 voters.

The Democratic Alliance received 16.66 percent of votes with 2,945,829 South Africans backing the party.

The Congress of the People received 7.42 percent with 1,311,027 votes.

The emergence of COPE, a party headed by former ANC chairperson Mosieua Lekota and former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, had served only to galvanise the ANC. That said, the ANC now have 5 years to perform or face stiffer opposition next time around from a viable black run opposition party.

Mnisi said the party would now wait for processes, which will see Zuma placed in the presidency and his cabinet selected. After that they would get to work on improving service delivery.

Zuma and incumbent president, his deputy, President Kgalema Motlanthe, are tol visit the results centre later on Saturday when IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam is expected to formally announce the results.

This indicated that the IEC was 70 percent of the way through processing the results.

The ANC remained in pole position with 10,479,367 votes (66.29) followed by the Democratic Alliance with 1,184,456 votes (16.21 percent).

Cope failed to make good on its assertion that it had severely dented the ANC’s grip on the Eastern Cape, by trailing far behind the ruling party’s 1,609,926 (69.70 percent) votes with its 307,437 votes (13.31 percent).

It had, however, dislodged the DA’s position as chief opposition in that province, with the DA receiving 230,187 votes (9.97 percent).

The battle for the Western Cape is all but won by Helen Zille’s DA, which received 788,008 votes (50.38 percent).

The ANC is in the second position with 481,998 votes (30.81 percent), followed by Cope’s 138,819 votes.

Nationally, the Inkatha Freedom Party was in fourth position with 703,885 votes (4.45 percent), followed by the ID with 146,919 votes (0.093 percent).

The ANC is close to clinching a two-thirds majority, with 65.75 percent of the national vote going to the ruling party as of 2.26pm. So far more than 6,9 million national ballots have been counted.

The DA’s total has slid down to below 17 percent and COPE’s total crept up to over 8 percent.

The IFP has about 3 percent of the vote, and the ID is trailing them with 1.3 percent.

The ANC has a secure lead in all but the Western Cape, where the DA has secured just under 50 percent of the vote. The ANC is at around 30%.

In the KZN, another battleground province, the ANC is winning with more than 65 percent of the vote. The IFP trails them with about 24 percent of the vote.

COPE has secured the largest number of their votes in the Eastern Cape at 13% and the Northern Cape at 17%.

The vote count climbed above six million, according to results released by the IEC in Pretoria shortly before 13:00 on Wednesday.

The African National Congress had over 60% of these with 3 988 079.

The Democratic Alliance is in second place with 1 097 045 votes.

The Congress of the People remained in the third spot with 499 651 votes.

A total of 6 232 428 votes had been counted by 13:00, which was 27% of the 23 181 997 voters registered nationally for Wednesday’s polls.

The Inkatha Freedom Party was in fourth place with 175 763 votes, with the Independent Democrats following with 86 585 votes.

The United Democratic movement followed with 75 402 votes.

Voter turnout is currently sitting at 77 percent with vote counts from 12,402 districts still outstanding, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairwoman Brigalia Bam said today.

Briefing the media in Pretoria, Bam said votes from 7,332 voting districts had been counted by just after noon.

“We will only know the total turnout probably in another two days’ time,” she said.

There were 19,726 voting stations in South Africa and nine voting stations overseas.

More than 23 million South Africans had registered to vote in the national election.

The IEC earlier estimated that with growing voter enthusiasm the overall turnout would be about 80 percent.

More than 5.2 million votes had been counted by 11.30am today according to the latest results at the election centre in Pretoria.

The African National Congress had 3,434,611 votes. The Democratic Alliance trailed with 988,923 votes followed by the Congress of the People with 433,261 votes.

The number counted is around 18 percent of the 23,181,997 voters registered to take part in Wednesday’s polls.

It is not yet known how many votes were cast.

The Inkatha Freedom Party was in fourth place with 141,975 of the votes.

The Independent Democrats follow with 81,188 votes.

More than four million votes had been counted by 10.30am today according to the latest results at the election centre in Pretoria.

The African National Congress had 2,687,044 votes thus far, with the Democratic Alliance trailing with 784, 392 votes followed by the Congress of the People with 319, 807 votes.

The number counted is around 18 percent of the 23,181,997 voters registered to take part in Wednesday’s polls.

It is not yet known how many votes were cast.

The Inkatha Freedom Party was in fourth place with 110,707 of the votes.

The Independent Democrats following with 69,555 votes.

“This was possibly the best result we could have had in the Western Cape”

This was said by a senior ANC official, who understandably did not want to be identified.

The Western Cape is the one province in the country where the early results show that the ANC is losing handsomely.

All the support for the Congress of the People in the province came almost exclusively from ANC voters.

Back to the drawing board

He Continued:

“If we had got closer to the DA figure, we would have being trying to put another coalition together, but now we are forced to go back to the drawing board, to go back to the grassroots, to build our organisation in the traditional way, and to heal it.”

With 600 000 votes counted on Thursday morning, from the 2.6 million-strong electorate in the province, the DA was holding 53.84%, and the ANC 27.3%.

More than three million votes had been counted in the national elections by 08:30 on Thursday morning.

The results put the ruling African National Congress in a commanding lead with 2 078 352 votes

A total of 3 304 062 votes had been counted.

But it is still not known how many of the 23 181 997 registered voters turned out at polling stations.

The Democratic Alliance was in second place, taking 636 637 of the votes counted.

In third place was the Congress of the People, with 251 200 votes.

The Inkatha Freedom Party took fourth position with 86 503 votes followed by the Independent Democrats with 54 852.

The Freedom Front Plus followed with 39 055 votes, while the A Party trailed in last with 572 votes.

In the provincial election results, the ANC was leading in eight out of nine provinces. The DA was ahead in the Western Cape with 287 185 of the votes and the ANC in second place with 147 616 votes.

There are reports of a massive turnout in the South African General Election of 2009. In what News24 calls the most exciting election post apartheid reports are made of polling stations being overwhelmed in various areas.

The report goes on to talk about various isolated criminal acts, such as marked ballot papers being found and area managers ‘losing’ their voting material. The most pressing problems are those of time and resources. With such a high voter turnout, it’ll highly likely people will still be queing come 9pm closing time. Those already in queues at that time will be allowed to vote.

The ANC has called for extended voting times in light of this, but this is most likely to be declined as reported here.

The other pressing problem is ballot paper supply running low and being non existent in some areas.

This is reminiscent for me of the 1994 election. I can’t recall another election generating this much hype and interest. Most of the countries 23 million registered voters are expected to vote.

Well I’ve done my bit today. I woke up late, went to an election station and stood in a massive queue for about 10 minutes before deciding I’d come back later. Last time around I voted towards the end of the day and simply walked in and out. My general perception this time around is that there will be a larger voter turnout than the previous Election in South Africa.

That’s a great thing. I find there is much more awareness this time and my peers are more excited and more motivated to vote. That said there are still the odd few who seem to think it’s a joke not to vote, some using hangovers as excuses, some just plain lazy. Lets hope these aren’t the people moaning over the next four years if things don’t go their way.

I have moved since I registered to vote and had to fill in a rather confusing form to allow for me to vote in my new district. There must be someone somewhere who specialises in fucking official forms up!

This one had a spot for a fingerprint which wasn’t required, as well as the confusing sentence ‘Address where you normally reside’. Surely just ‘Address’ would have worked better?

Other than that, the official who jokingly told me that I needed to pay R50 cos I was at another station was mildly irritating. That’s a little bit in poor taste there fella.

I am glad I delayed the vote till this afternoon as I was in and out in 5 minutes, confusing form and irritating official et al.

I’ve been scanning the papers for initial reactions, and other than a few scare stories of villagers being told to vote ANC and ballot papers being strewn across a street someplace, it all seems to be going along smoothly. It must be rememberd that this is a massive logistical task and there will be the odd hiccup here and there. As a citizen, I’m happy with how it has been conducted so far.

Now we wait for the results.

“Join us tonight for the VOTERS party at (******) Buy 1 get 1 free till 10pm, no guys U21, no girls U19. Vote with a hangover its FUN.”

Um what?

I can’t actually believe this message! Firstly it’s totally unsolicited which really grates me, but secondly and much more importantly, these jokers seem to think it’s FUN to vote with a hangover.

I don’t know if this is a sign of the times, voter apathy and all that, but really this is just not on. I deleted the venue name, as I don’t think it’s cool to use something as serious as our General Election 2009 to score a quick buck.

I generally stay away from political comment, but I feel I need to say this, specifically as the 2009 general elections are shortly to take place in South Africa.

With a relative amount of dismay I read this article.

The most disappointing aspect of this report is the fact that Mandela, a man whom I have had the most repect for for such a long time, would publically support the “cult of personality” aspect that has befallen the ANC.

Of all people I would have expected Mr Mandela to stand true to his party (which he has done) and true to his ideals and beliefs (which I believe he has done) in public.

The fact that he supports and is still willing to stand for the ANC does say a lot about the man, however I believe it is an error and damning to his legacy to publically endorse a person, rather than that persons party. Jacob Zuma is Jacob zuma, not the ANC.

To appear on stage bearing a Zuma likeness on his breast goes exactly against everything I believe Mr Mandela has stood for in his life. The ANC is NOT Jacob Zuma as much as Jacob Zuma would have you believe. It is supposed to be a party for the people by the people. The very leaders of this ANC have missed the point. This generation of the ANC is one based on personal enrichment, electioneering and smoke and mirrors.

What exactly are you supporting Mr Mandela? An egostistical ruling class that believes we are voting for the person? The Zumas and The Malemas of this country? As a South African I’d like to remind you of the message that todays ruling party is putting out. This message is directed at me, I’m a South African, What do I hear?

I hear Zuma this, Zuma that. I hear nothing of party policy, nothing of how things are going to be fixed. Nothing of service delivery, nothing of safety and security. I hear Zuma. I hear Malema. I hear cult of personality. History has countless examples of cult of personality. It is not what democracy is, it is not what any sane person would vote for.

I know what I’m voting for, I’m voting for South Africa.

Party for the people by the people remember?? Its not rocket science, don’t insult our intelligence.

Here are my thoughts on this report:

“In a short recorded speech played to the crowd in his presence, Mandela said that the ruling party had the responsibility to “build a non-racial society”.”

Perhaps he is reminding Zuma of a few things. Zuma certainly hasn’t covered himself in glory lately on this front. I am an English speaking South african who’s family arrived in South Africa in 1715. Juma’s recent comments about who exactly is South African leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

“Working together we can do more,” Mandela said. Shortly before Mandela’s message was played, ANC youth league president Julius Malema vowed that the country’s youth would vote for the ruling party at Wednesday’s polls.

The fiery youth leader, who just finished campaigning in both the Western and Eastern Cape, told the massive crowd that the ruling party could count on the votes from areas previously not visited by ANC.

Can they count on that Julius? Can you honestly tell your supporters that people you haven’t campaigned for or represented will support you? Can you vow that? Thought not.

“Malema reiterated the league’s stance that it would “never sell out” the ANC – a reference to leaders who broke away from the ruling party to form the Congress of the People.”

Service delivery remember? Stick to service delivery, you’re a public servant.

“We will never sell out what Chris Hani stood for, what [former ANC Youth League leader] Peter Mokaba stood for. Before you touch Zuma you will have to start with us,” Malema said to loud cheers from the crowd.

He further vowed that the ANC will win with “a more than three third majority” at the polls.

What do YOU stand for Julius? What does your party stand for?  Once again this is an insult to our intelligence. One cannot ‘vow’ that a win will happen.

ANC president Jacob Zuma arrived at the Ellis Park Stadium at about 12pm to address the over 400 000 ANC supporters across the country .

The massive crowd went into a frenzy of cheers and chants as elder statesman Nelson Mandela made a surprise appearance with Zuma shortly after noon.

When a frail-looking Mandela, wearing an ANC T-shirt bearing Zuma’s face, was literally hauled onto the stage and waved at the masses, supporters in the stadium were delirious with excitement.

That last sentence says it all.