No winner in sight for KZN

2004-04-15 20:34

Durban - The election race in KwaZulu-Natal closed in on the half way mark on Thursday evening with no indication whether the African National Congress or the Inkatha Freedom Party would win the province.

The ANC, which has made serious inroads into the province over the past years, was leading the result with 43.2% followed by the IFP with 39.2%.

The Democratic Alliance, which may tip the province into the IFP's hands through its "Coalition for Change" with Inkatha, was at 9.46%.

Provincial electoral officer Mawethu Mosery told reporters in Durban that it was not known when the final figures would be available as many municipal electoral offices were still counting ballots that would then have to be audited before being released.

'Anything can happen'

Political analyst Nhlanhla Mtaka said it was difficult at this stage to determine who would win the poll because votes were still coming in from the huge Durban Metropolitan and rural areas. "Anything can happen," he said.

Past polls have shown that the ANC generally has support in the urban areas while the IFP reigns in the rural areas.

However, this year's election campaigning took the two parties into each others territories.

After the 1999 election the ANC and IFP formed a coalition government in the province because both parties failed to gain 50 percent voter support.

After legislation allowing MPs and MPLs to cross the floor to a party of their choice without losing their seats was approved last year, relations between the two parties soured.

Preliminary election results in the province showed that just over 60% of the voters had cast their ballots by 21:00 on Wednesday.

About two million of the province's 3.8 million registered voters had gone to the polls.

Complaints

Allegations of political violence and vote rigging continued in the province with the IFP threatening to declare that the election was not free and fair.

More than 100 complaints were lodged with the provincial Independent Electoral Commission.

Incidents included the shooting of a DA councillor in the Folweni area on the south coast, security personnel evacuating ANC party agents in Ulundi in northern KZN and the IFP laying a charge of corruption against an IEC official after she was allegedly found in possession of voter registration stickers in Inanda, north of Durban.

The province also had another bomb scare.

The Durban magistrate's court was evacuated on Thursday morning and closed for the day after the scare.

The Minority Front is in fourth place at 2.41% of the vote and the African Christian Democratic Party has 1.92%.

The Independent African Movement is the loser so far at 0.07%.

Watch the provisional results of the national and provincial elections as they come in on News24.com

- SAPA