DA Western Cape premier Candidate, Alan Winde, stands in front of a display showing the DA with a majority of votes currently counted (Photo: Ethan Van Diemen)
The votes have been cast, the polls have closed and despite early projections suggesting a victory for the DA in the Western Cape, DA premier candidate Alan Winde is not "counting chickens before they hatch".
According to News24's statistical model, based on currently available and representative results in the Western Cape, the DA will hang onto its majority, but it could be less than the 57% it secured in 2014.
The ANC has lost support and will come in at below 30%. It secured 34% in 2014. The EFF looks set to garner the support of around 3.6% of the electorate in the province and the Good party is expected to receive around 4%.
Speaking to News24 at the IEC's Western Cape results operation centre (ROC) in Cape Town, Winde said that after a long, tough election campaign taking its toll, he remains energised and enthused by the prospects of ascending to the premiership in the province as the results steadily trickle in.
DA Western Cape premier candidate, Alan Winde, watches as the provincial results trickle in at the Western Cape IEC Results Operation Centre (Photo: Ethan Van Diemen/News24)
Should he be successfully elected premier, Winde stated that his provincial government's priorities would be in line with his party's campaign throughout the election season.
Jobs, safety, rail system
"We'll be pretty busy making sure that what we've been talking about, what we've been thinking about and what we've been campaigning on are those things that get landed.
"Of course, again, those things are jobs. We have gotta make sure we provide a job in every household, education and health. We've gotta continue to push those boundaries that we've worked hard [for] over these last few years and safety. It's the public transport, the rail system and resilience," said Winde.
"Obviously, it has been a very, very long campaign and so you wanna feel tired, you wanna go to sleep but there's an adrenaline building.
"We still don't have the final results. It's going to be a long day today but so far so good. You never should count your chickens before they hatch but I think it's looking good," he added.
As at 10:30, and after 55% of the provincial ballots counted, the DA stands at 53.8%, the ANC at 29.4%, the FF Plus at 3.6%, the EFF at 3.2%, the ACDP at 2.8% and GOOD at 2.4%.
The bulk of outstanding ballots still to be counted are from regions in the Cape Town metro.
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