The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in KwaZulu-Natal has captured 35% of election results.
The IEC says 35% of KwaZulu-Natal’s election results had been captured and 25% audited, with final provincial results due to be announced on Sunday.
EC provincial electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga briefed the media at the Durban ICC results centre on Thursday, saying the counting process was progressing well across the province.
Masinga said the commission had not experienced any major challenges, with a stable electricity supply helping to ensure that the process continued without interruptions.
She said two municipalities, Ndumeni and uMhlathuze, had completed the auditing process and their seat allocations.
The province has 144 municipalities, with 142 still to complete the process. Masinga said results had to be audited by an independent auditing firm before being made available on the IEC's results leaderboard.
The audit process checks whether the results captured on the commission's system match those recorded at voting stations.
She said political parties had until 5pm on Friday to lodge objections under Section 65 of the Electoral Act, provided these had a material impact on the election results.
The commission would investigate the objections and inform those who lodged them of its decisions before the official results announcement scheduled for Sunday at 6pm.
On voter turnout, Masinga said KwaZulu-Natal recorded 49%, compared with the national average of 45%.
She said the commission had hoped to surpass the 50% mark but was pleased with the province's turnout compared with other provinces.
Masinga also confirmed that parts of eThekwini experienced electricity outages on Wednesday, including KwaMakhutha and areas around it, as well as Mpushini, affecting wards 94 and 96.
However, the problem was resolved within an hour through collaboration between Eskom and the eThekwini Municipality.
She said the intervention helped ensure that voting was not significantly disrupted and assisted voters who had been unable to cast their ballots during the outage. Meanwhile, the IEC expressed condolences to the family of an elderly woman who collapsed at a voting station in Shallcross, Ward 172, in eThekwini on Wednesday.
The woman was rushed to hospital but later died.
"We would like to share our condolences with the family of the an elderly voter that took ill and collapsed in one of our voting stations yesterday in Shall-cross ward 72 in eThekwini who was rushed to hospital but unfortunately did not make it".
She said Masinga said the voter had not applied for a special vote and had opted to physically visit the voting station to cast her ballot.
Masinga said the Commission hope to be done with capturing the results by end of Thursday. She said the result would be officially announced on Sunday.