By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has the clarified the confusion with update on its results dashboard that reflect both national and regional votes.
The Commission found itself trending on X this evening. But it says there should be no reason for anger or panic.
Allegations that the elections have been manipulated were rife on the social media platform, after people noticed that national numbers suddenly doubled for some parties, including the African National Congress (ANC), on its website.
In a statement, the commission said, the registered voters received two ballots for the National Assembly: 1 National and 1 Regional, (3rd election ballot was for the provincial). Just over 16 million voters voted, casting some 31.92 millions ballots accross 9 regional and 1 national.”
“The Electoral Act prescribes that for the calculation of compesatory seats, both national compensatory (N) ballots and regional (R) ballots are taken into account hence the demotion of N + R on the results dashboard, read the statement.”
The commission added that this is done to ensure that the alocation of compesatory seats take into account the regional strength of all political parties, thus, meeting the prorpotional representation in general as demanded by the constitution.
Meanwhile the ANC said on Monday, the new government has five parties in it so far, representing more than two thirds of the seats in the National Assembly, and talks with other parties were ongoing.
The ANC was forced to forge alliances with other political parties after failing to win a parliamentary majority for the first since the 1994 election that marked the end of apartheid.
Cyril Ramaphosa was re-elected as president by parliament on Friday, as his party drew support from its largest rival, the white-led, pro-business Democratic Alliance, as well as two smaller parties – the socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party and the right-wing Patriotic Alliance, GOOD, had also signed up to be part of the unity government pact.
This collective represents 273 seats in the National Assembly, or 68%, the ANC said.
Parliament has 400 seats. The ANC won 159 seats, the DA is the second-largest party with 87 seats, the IFP has 17 seats, PA has 9 seats and GOOD has a single seat.
Among its priorities, the unity government is set to focus on rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, the promotion of fixed capital investment, job creation, land reform and infrastructure development, the ANC said.
“We made up our minds that we were not going to vote with the ANC until we had a signed deal. It was obviously crucial for us. If Shivambu had not called for that caucus break, believe me, we wouldn’t be here.”
She also said the party will not support any motion of no confidence against President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Zille said part of the agreement includes the DA refraining from voting against Ramaphosa in parliament.
This amid speculation that some parties are planning to bring a motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa over the Phala Phala farm saga.
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo opened the parliament’s first sitting, swearing in MPs in batches and presiding over the election of the speaker, who was from the ANC, and a deputy speaker who hailed from the DA.
However, South Africans continued to express scepticism about the unprecedented deal, particularly the union of the ANC and the DA, until now long-term political foes. The DA has been the country’s longest official opposition.
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), which already has approached the Electoral Court in its bid to set the recent election results aside, has revealed that it will be approaching international courts over the alleged rigging of last month’s elections.
MKP leader Jacob Zuma revealed that the party had instructed its legal teams to take the necessary steps, inside and outside South Africa, to ensure that justice was served.
Zuma said: “I want to tell you what our legal person was telling me. The judges here who make judgments not based on facts are likely to tell you that this is all wrong. We are going to the international court so that this country does not have South African judges doing so.
“Judges who get angry and sentence you because they hate you. We are going to the judges who look at things and look at issues. We are going there to the judges that look at things and issues … For the record, the MK Party is of the strong view that the 2024 elections were rigged and that the results announced by the IEC are not a true reflection of the will of the people.”
Zuma accused the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) and the Constitutional Court of having ignored volumes of its evidence of election fraud as well as of having cooked the numbers.
Here is the Election Dashboard:2024 Election Results.