The African National Congress in Nelson Mandela Bay says there were widespread attempted to manipulate the vote in the metro.
Advertisement
Democratic Alliance (DA) mayoral candidate for Port Elizabeth, Athol Trollip, says the party is looking forward to putting a government together to lead the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality following the completion of vote counting in the metro municipality. “We’ve been waiting for a long time for this moment”, he said.
The ANC won more than 50 percent of the vote in the 2011 elections in the area. It’s also poised to lose overall control of South Africa’s biggest city, Johannesburg, and Pretoria, the capital.
The ANC is second with 40.92% and the EFF is third with 5.12%.
The DA garnered 47 percent of votes compared with 41 percent for the ANC.
The ANC has however refused to concede saying that it will be lodging a complaint after ballot papers were found outside the IEC’s Eastern Cape results centre, which still need to accounted for. However, the ruling party was neck and neck with the DA in key metros of Tshwane and Johannesburg in Gauteng.
“It is very symbolic”, Maimane said, when asked by a journalist whether victory in Nelson Mandela Bay was significant for the party.
Advertisement
“The DA’s early calling of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro results by the DA is nothing but an act of desperation”, said ANC Provincial Chairperson, Phumulo Masualle.
