ELECTION NEWS - With vote counting nearing completion on Saturday 11 May, the Democratic Alliance (DA) had taken most of the votes cast outside of South Africa.
The party obtained 74,45% of votes cast abroad in South Africa’s sixth National and Provincial Elections, administered by the Electoral Commission (IEC).
The African National Congress (ANC) took the second spot with 10,83% of the votes, followed by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) in third place with 4,57% of the vote.
Almost 30 000 South Africans living abroad cast their vote on 27 April at 121 at high commissions, embassies and consulates-generals around the world. Most of them (9 084) live in London, followed by 1 542 living in Dubai. New York has the second least number of voters in the list of the top 10 foreign missions with 605 South Africans ready to vote, while Doha, which has the smallest number of registered voters, will prepare for 566 people to cast their votes. Overseas voters voted only for national candidates.
Overseas voting continued for almost 24 hours as voting stations opened and then closed around the world following the passage of the sun - beginning in Wellington, New Zealand and ending in Los Angeles, United States.
The counting of oversees votes started on Wednesday night soon after polls in South Africa closed at 21:00. On Thursday, IEC Chief Executive Officer Mosotho Moepya said there were a number of missions abroad whose votes had not been received by 21:00 on Wednesday.
According to data at 08:10 on Saturday voter turnout in the national elections stood at 65,97%.
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