Pretoria, May 9 (IANS): South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) increased its vote share Friday to 62.5 percent (10,287,024 votes) from Thursday's 59.72 percent (2,870,576) as just five percent of the votes cast in the May 7 general election remain to be counted, a media report said.
The ANC was followed by by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 22 percent (3,617,404) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 6.04 percent (994,669), according to SA News.
Three political parties will debut in parliament, the South African Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said. They are the National Freedom Party (NFP), the African Independent Congress (AIC) and the EFF.
The People’s Alliance (PAL) could garner just .01 percent (1,560) of the votes.
The final results expected to be declared Saturday.
South Africans voted Wednesday to elect the new National Assembly and provincial legislatures.
The National Assembly consists of 400 members elected by proportional representation with a closed list approach.
A total of 200 members will be elected from national party lists, while the other 200 will be elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces.
The National Assembly will choose the new South African president after the elections, with incumbent Jacob Zuma set to retain office.
The provincial premiers will be chosen by their respective legislatures.
The 2014 general elections were the fifth since the end of apartheid in 1994. They were also the first without the presence of the father of South African democracy, Nelson Mandela, who passed away Dec 5, 2013, at the age of 95.
Another significant aspect of the polls was the born-frees - those born after 1994 - who voted for the first time.