Pretoria – The African Union election observer missions said on Friday that South Africa’s 2014 general elections had been free and fair.

The head of the AU observer mission, Prof Ibrahima Fall, said: “The preliminary conclusion is that the elections were free, fair and transparent.”

Fall praised the Independent Electoral Commission’s use of technology in conducting the elections.

“The process was elaborate to ensure accountability,” he said.

“The capturing and transmission of votes are done electronically and are efficient.”

Former Ghanaian president John Kufuor, a member of the mission, was not overly concerned about the discovery of ballot papers found dumped in Pretoria and Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg.

Prepared

“I don’t think the incidents were too many considering the size of the country and its history.

“We believe that the IEC will move from strength to strength from here,” Kufuor said.

He went on to say that South Africa had set the bar for other countries in the continent.

“This is a preliminary report, but I can assure you its going to become the final one,” he said.

The AU deployed 57 observers across the nine provinces during the elections.

The Southern African Development Community’s observers said the country had been adequately prepared for the elections.

“I congratulate the IEC, government, society and media for their orderly and peaceful elections whose outcome has no doubt reflects the will of the people, ” said SADC head of observer mission, Justice Lehohla.-Sapa

Pretoria – A ballistics expert testifying for Oscar Pistorius’s defence said on Friday the bullets that hit Reeva Steenkamp were not in the order prosecutors claimed, offering key evidence in the star’s murder trial.

Wollie Wolmarans sought to show that the sequence of the bullets showed Steenkamp was reaching for the toilet door, and not putting her hands to her face defensively.

The model’s final movements have been used by the defence to show Pistorius shot the 29-year-old mistaking her for an intruder, while the prosecution has sought to show he knew she was in the cubicle and wilfully fired.

Wolmarans told the court that Steenkamp was close to the toilet door and leaning slightly forward when the first of four gunshots hit her hip.

The next bullets hit her arm and hand, and the final bullet hit her head as she was falling backward.

Wolmarans’s testimony runs in the face of police ballistics testimony, which said one bullet missed and ricocheted off the wall, injuring Steenkamp’s back and that the final bullet hit her hand and head, as she was sitting in a defensive position with her hands over her head.

Defence claims bolstered

The defence witness said all four hollow-point bullets hit the 29-year-old model and law graduate, saying the same bullet could not have hit both her hand and head, otherwise there would be brain tissue found on her hand.

“I would not expect that tissue to go on the wall, it would be on the inside of the hand,” said Wolmarans. He said the back wounds were “consistent with falling off a blunt surface” and caused when Steenkamp fell on a wooden magazine rack in the toilet.

The state’s version, that Steenkamp fell into a seated position on the magazine rack, “doesn’t make sense to me,” said Wolmarans.

The expert testimony bolsters the defence claim Steenkamp was reaching for the toilet door handle when she was shot by Pistorius.

The Paralympic gold medallist claims he shot his girlfriend by accident, believing her to be an intruder in his upmarket Pretoria home.

In contrast, the state claims 27-year-old Pistorius shot Steenkamp in a fit of rage following an argument. If found guilty of premeditated murder, the double-amputee faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

Pistorius began the day in good spirits, cracking a rare smile in court as he greeted Wolmarans, an ex-policeman with over thirty years’ experience in ballistics.

Yet as Wolmarans testified on graphic details about Steenkamp’s death, the world famous athlete bent his head in the dock, shielding his eyes with his hand from photos of the bloody crime scene shown on the court television monitors.
AFP

Pretoria – The Electoral Commission said on Friday that 97.62% of the national vote in the fifth democratic elections had been counted by lunch.

It said that 21 734 of the 22 263 voting districts had been counted.

Out of the 17 788 485 votes counted so far, 17 546 070 were valid.

Nationally there were 24 269 962 people registered.

The African National Congress was leading with more than 10 million votes so far, which represented 62.26%.

The Democratic Alliance was in second spot with 3 889 949 (22.17%) and newcomer the Economic Freedom Fighters was third with just over a million votes.-Sapa

Pretoria – Counting of the Gauteng provincial results was 78.16% complete by 07:50 on Friday morning, according to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) website.

According to the early results on the website, the African National Congress had 1 748 579 (51.67%) votes, the Democratic Alliance 1 123 338 (33.2%) and the Economic Freedom Fighters had 333 148 (9.85%) votes.

The Freedom Front Plus had 46 191 votes, Inkatha Freedom Party 21 739, the African Christian Democratic Party 21 723 and Congress of the People 16 470 votes.

The United Democratic Movement had 15 077 votes, the National Freedom Party 13 898 and Agang SA 13 742 votes.

From the 2 647 voting districts in the province, counting at 2 069 had been completed. Total votes cast were 3 416 331 with 32 417 spoilt votes and 73.24% voter turnout.

Follow the election results LIVE.
– SAPA

Pretoria – Support for the Democratic Alliance could increase by over five percent in the fifth national democratic elections with more than 90% of votes counted on Friday morning.

According to early results, the DA have 22.03% of the votes with 3 605 019 votes nationally in Wednesday’s elections after 94.09% of votes had been counted.

In the 2009 elections, the DA received 16.66% of votes, while it received 12.37% of the votes in the 2004 elections.

According to the results at the Electoral Commission of SA’s results centre in Pretoria on Friday morning, the African National Congress had 62.51% of the votes by 06:00 with 10 228 644 votes.

In the 2009 elections the ruling party won with 65.9% of the votes.

In 2004, the ANC won with 69.69% compared to the 66.35% in 1999 and the 62.65% in 1994.

On Friday, the early results indicated that the new kids on the block, the Economic Freedom Fighters were in third place with 5.95% of the votes and 973 369 votes.

The Inkatha Freedom Party had 404 692 (2.47%) votes according to Friday morning’s early results.

The National Freedom Party remained in fifth place with 1.64 percent of the national votes.

The results centre was quiet on Friday morning with tired party officials and media waiting for the results to be updated. Shortly after 05:30 police took sniffer dogs through the centre.

A total of 16 362 869 votes had been counted.
– SAPA

IEC Chief Electoral Officer Mosotho Moepya says while selfies were not permitted in voting booths, most selfies show South Africans celebrating their votes.-Sapa

Johannesburg – The EFF could secure 23 seats in Parliament in its debut election, according to the latest SABC predictions on Thursday night.

This would see the Economic Freedom Fighters get nearly three times the number of Inkatha Freedom Party seats, nine according to the SABC, down from 18.

The African National Congress would lose three seats to settle at 261, while the Democratic Alliance would hold 90, 23 more than it secured in the 2009 general elections.

The SABC foresaw the National Freedom Party, which did not contest the last elections, securing seven parliamentary seats.
– SAPA