The ANC has, according to provisional IEC results, won the local government elections in the Northern Cape by 58.26 percent and secured 26 councils, while the DA remains the official opposition at 24.85 percent.
The EFF obtained the third highest number of votes in the province (8.6 percent) by the time that the last vote was counted at about 12.40pm on Thursday.
Cope received 2.54 percent of the votes, while the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) came in with 1.42 percent.
Independent candidates contesting the elections garnered 1.44 percent of the votes.
Newcomers, the Kgatelopele Community Forum (KCF) in Danielskuil, received 0.33 percent of the votes, Save Tsantsabane Forum (STC) 0.69 percent and the Khoisan Revolution, who aim to represent the interests of the Khoisans in the newly merged Dawid Kruiper Municipality, 0.41 percent.
The seats allocated across the entire province are: ANC (227), DA (98), EFF (34), Cope (eight), FF+ (two), STC (three), two each for Die Forum and KCF, and one each for the African Independent Party and United Christian Democratic Party.
The African Christian Democratic Party, Pan African Congress of Azania, Civic Independent and the Azanian People’s Organisation failed to secure any positions.
Three independent candidates will be occupying three municipal council seats in the Northern Cape.
IEC provincial electoral officer Bonolo Modise said the results would be handed over to the national commissioner, who would be expected to announce the final results within the next three days, if there are no complications.
“Any objections must be lodged with the national office of the IEC and must be processed before the final results are released.”
He added that the IEC commissioner would pronounce whether the elections were conducted in a free and fair manner, while the Northern Cape had done everything possible to ensure that everyone had followed the correct procedures.
Modise stated that apart from a few glitches with the scanning of results, no major incidents were reported.
“We welcomed the challenge, where there was an increased number of voters and parties as well as independent candidates.”
He encouraged independent candidates and parties who had not fared as well as they had expected to return and contest again.
“It means that it was a tough game. They should come back stronger next time.”
Modise indicated that the voter turnout was 61.4 percent, compared to 63 percent in 2011.