By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The official elections results have been announced at the Independent Electoral Commission’s Results Operations Centre in Midrand on Sunday evening.
IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya has declared the May 29 elections free and fair.
The commission released the seat allocations following Wednesday’s general elections, and the African National Congress (ANC) is the biggest loser, dropping a whopping 71 seats. The party only lost 14 seats in the 2019 election, which hardly had an effect on its conduct in Parliament.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) seats have increased from 84 to 87 – up three, while the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) lost five seats from 44 to 39.
For the 2024 election results, the MK Party shocked the nation after performing well in the elections. It has obtained 58 seats.
According to the commission, the ANC garnered a total of 40.19% support with 6,458,988 votes, followed by the DA with 21.80%, translating to 3,502,863 votes.
The MK Party bagged 14.59% support, with a total of 2,344,096 votes.
However, there were over 212,518 spoilt votes in the elections. Only the top six best performing political parties got more votes: The ANC, DA, MK, EFF, IFP, the PA and the FF+.
If spoilt votes were a political party, they would be sending six people to Parliament in the seventh administration.
Moepya, acknowledged the election had been fiercely contested.
“These elections were undoubtedly the most difficult and the most hotly contested,” he said.However, he added that they were free and fair and represented “the collective voice of the nation.”
Moepya slammed the attacks and intimidation of the IEC and its officials by some political figures and their supporters during the elections, which he said were meant to taint the integrity of the institutions. He said that these attempts failed.
Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said that now that the electoral and objection process have been completed and that the elections have been declared free and fair, “we must act to honor the choices of the voters.”
Meanwhile the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) believes the IEC decision to declare the 2024 provincial and national election results is premature, inaccurate and lacks credibility.
“Given the substantial and numerous nature of the objections that will still be submitted by the ACDP and many other parties in coming weeks, we in this same National Political Party Liaison Committee (NPLC) meeting, rejected the declaration by the SADC Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM) on Saturday, that these elections are free and fair,” said ACDP.
In his speech at the announcement ceremony of the 2024 election results on Sunday evening, President Cyril Ramaphosa said said South Africans have demonstrated through their votes that the country’s democracy is “strong, robust and enduring.”
“Our people have spoken, whether we like it or not, they have spoken…As the leaders of political parties, as all those who occupy positions of responsibility in society, we have heard the voices of our people and we must respect their wishes, “Ramaphosa said.
Political parties will now have two weeks to work out a coalition deal, after which the new parliament will sit to choose a president.