The Electoral Commission says it has captured more than 60% of the results in the Zululand District of KwaZulu-Natal.
The district comprises five local municipalities: Ulundi, Nongoma, Abaqulusi, Pongola and uPhongolo.
Speaking at the results capturing centre at Ulundi in northern KwaZulu-Natal, IEC regional manager Phakamani Mabaso says the process is progressing well.
He is optimistic that most of the five municipalities will have completed capturing their results by the end of today.
Mabaso says larger municipalities, such as Abaqulusi, could complete the process by midday on Friday.
He is confident that the commission will meet its deadlines as outlined in the electoral process.
“I can confirm that, I think, we have covered more than 60% of the capturing of the results, and I can promise you that tomorrow the Zululand district will be done. Maybe we will be dealing with exceptions of a different nature, but some of my municipalities, I think, are up to 90 per cent with the results capturing.”
LGE 2026 | Day one of vote counting under way:
Meanwhile, the capturing of votes for other municipalities across KwaZulu-Natal continues.
DA Provincial Chairperson Dean Macpherson says the DA has not ruled out the possibility of entering into partnerships.
“Our first priority is to get a majority if we can’t within a short time to have those conversations, but luckily we are still very, very far off from that. We need to see what chips we have on the table so that we are able to have those conversations. But I think that the DA is going to emerge very strongly in ego just looking at the words that we have won. We have one award from the ANC. We have won the war of MK. We have won the ward of actual essay; we have one word at the length and breadth of the city, and that is very encouraging for us. We still have something that is not finalised that we are very confident about.”