By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
ActionSA President Herman Mashaba and ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont addressed the media at the IEC’s National Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Midrand, Johannesburg.
Mashaba said he was not happy with their numbers because of how they ran their campaign across the country but said he remained hopeful.
“These numbers are not what we were expecting but for us as a party…but here is an opportunity for us to be in parliament for the first time,” he said.
He said ActionSA is grateful that the ANC no longer has a majority to push its agenda.
Mashaba added that, his party has played a key role in ensuring that the ruling party was down.
Action SA is currently sitting in eighth place with 1.1% of the national vote.
“We must be grateful as South Africans now that the ANC has got no majority to push its agenda and protect one another now those days are gone,” said Mashaba.
It’s been two days since voters stood in line to make their mark in the national and provincial elections. Under novel circumstances, voters could vote for independent candidates, and they were considering a third regional ballot paper.
Preliminary results indicate a precarious situation for the governing ANC – with analysts projecting below 50% support.
However – amid the anxiety and excitement of political leaders and their supporters – the electoral commission’s head, Sy Mamabolo, says we can expect a final result announcement soon.
“The commission will declare the results of this election sometime over the weekend, after which elected representatives will be published in the government gazette and after that handed over to the chief justice for purposes of convening the first meeting of the National Assembly.
While the IEC has said it regrets this morning’s incident, in which the results screen across its centres went blank, the commission is denying that its system crashed.
Earlier, the commission released a statement acknowledging the two-hour-long interruption.
Mamabolo is adamant that everything about the vote-counting process is still in order.
“I wish to emphasise that our system did not crash, as reported, and no data was compromised. The commission went into the election with a full spectrum ICT plan, which included backups and recovery where such were necessary. In this case, this was not necessary.”
In a scathing statement released Friday, the Economic Freedom Fighters accused the IEC of incompetence.
“The crashing of the dashboard highlights the incompetence and inability of the IEC to safeguard our democracy. This incompetence was first witnessed on voting day when the VMD machines were not fully functional in many voting stations across the country. This resulted in long lines and a longer voting process which were not properly managed by the institution”, the statement read.
The red berets call for a thorough investigation into the IEC.
At the same time, Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen slammed the IEC performance at voting district, adding the party’s lawyers would look at taking legal steps against the commission.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of ActionSA.