ANC leading in South African general election

The ruling African National Congress, or ANC, was heading to victory in South Africa's presidential and parliamentary elections on Friday, though its performance was likely to be the worst since it came to power 25 years ago.

The ANC, headed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, was leading with about 57 percent of votes, after more than two-thirds of the voting districts counted.

Its closest rival, the Democratic Alliance received nearly 22 percent of votes, and the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters about 10 percent, according to result released by the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa. The final result is expected to be released on Saturday.

Still, the result would be the ANC's worst performance since Nelson Mandela led the party to victory in the first all-races poll in 1994, which marked the end of the apartheid. In the previous poll five years ago, it won 62 percent of the total vote.

The ANC Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte said she is neither disappointed or surprised at the partial results, according to Agence France-Presse.

"What I think is important to recognize is the deepening of our democracy," she said.

Millions of South Africans headed to the polling stations on Wednesday. Tight security was reported in all the polling stations with a minimum of two police officers per station to ensure the process runs smoothly.

On Thursday, police arrested 19 suspects in three KwaZulu-Natal municipalities for "double voting".

Mawethu Mosery, the IEC deputy electoral officer said the arrests had been made in Hluhluwe, Port Shepstone and Danhauser and that the police were conducting the investigation.

"The Electoral Commission is encouraged by the rapid arrest of the voters in KwaZulu-Natal in connection with alleged double voting," he said.

He said any attempt to vote more than once leaves a clear footprint in the electoral process and the suspects were tracked down using that information.

"The Electoral Commission has also ordered an investigation into the effectiveness of the indelible ink marker pens supplied for the elections," he said.

Mosery said the IEC will urgently conduct an audit of results and votes cast in a sample of voting stations to ascertain if double voting occurred.

He said the audit will cover a statistically representative sample of voting stations as well as all voting stations where complaints or allegations of double voting have been received.

According to an IEC statement, the audit will involve the capture of information showing the ID numbers of voters who cast votes at each voting station.

Chen Yingqun contributed to this story.

edithmutethya@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/11/2019 page8)