Midrand – The Electoral Commission (IEC) on Thursday said the “real heroes” of the elections were the South Africans – some stood in the queues until the early morning hours to cast their vote.
The IEC thanked the “real heroes of the 2024 National and Provincial Elections”, adding: “They are South Africans who stood in the queues and electoral staff who worked tirelessly to process the votes”.
Addressing a press briefing at the Results Operation Centre at Gallagher Convention Centre, in Midrand on Thursday, IEC chief Sy Mamabolo said: “The last ballot was cast in the early hours in the Arcadia Swimbad voting station in Tshwane, thus marking the conclusion of voting in NPE2024”.
Mamabolo said on Wednesday the IEC assisted all voters already in the queue by 21:00, the scheduled time for voting stations to close.
He said just after midnight the IEC announced the first result.
“This was in a voting district in the Winnie Madikizela Mandela Municipality in the Eastern Cape,” said Mamabolo.
“For all intents and purposes counting procedures have been concluded with only a few voting stations reported to still be counting at 15:00.
“The process of results compilation entails ensuring accuracy and validation of the results.”
He further explained that: “This process involves scanning each result slip to create an image of the result, double blind capture of each result slip, auditing of each result slip by independent auditors”.
Mamabolo said the result system was audited externally and parties had occasion to also audit.
“By 16:00 results had been concluded for 22,6% of the 23 292 voting districts, which represents 2.3 million votes cast,” he said.
Mamabolo explained that a result was considered complete only when a “result slip” has been scanned into an image, captured onto the results system, audited by independent auditors, and has gone through the automated Result System exception parameters.
He said the rate of result capture was as follows:
- Gauteng has captured 28%,
- Limpopo 26%, North West 36%,
- Northern Cape 63 %,
- Free State 56%,
- KwaZulu-Natal 23%,
- Mpumalanga 42%,
- Eastern Cape 58% and
- Western Cape 57%
The IEC has seven days to complete the counting and verification process, but an earlier announcement said official results would be announced on Sunday, 2 June 2024.
