Safe to assume De Lille new CT mayor: IEC

2011-05-20 19:34

Cape Town - It was safe to assume the DA’s Patricia de Lille was Cape Town’s new mayor, provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson said on Friday evening.

This was despite a recount of votes, still underway at the Independent Electoral Commission’s warehouse in the city.

Speaking at the IEC’s final media briefing, he said the recount was the result of an IEC official in Khayelitsha failing to hand in voting district results slips.

Before the counting was stopped, 98.5% of the votes had been tallied. These showed the Democratic Alliance had secured 62% of the vote in the metro, and the African National Congress just under 32%.

"At this point, I think we can safely assume that Patricia de Lille will be the new mayor of Cape Town," Sampson said.

Responding to a question, he said he was convinced the official’s failure to hand in the slip "was not malicious".

It was "just a case of gross negligence", and was being investigated by the police. A recount was the "cleanest way" of dealing with the matter.

On when the final count would be available, Sampson would not say.

"I’m not going to tell you, it’s tonight or tomorrow."

An official said the IEC would issue a detailed final-results statement "in the next 24 hours".

De Lille, who was at the IEC centre, thanked the citizens of Cape Town for their support.

The DA would use its outright majority in the metro "to build and make a great city even greater".

She said the party had almost secured a two-thirds majority, but vowed this "does not mean we will exclude other political parties".

- SAPA