ANC conference to run over time
2007-12-20 13:17
Polokwane - The African National Congress' Polokwane conference will run over time, but will still finish on Thursday, an official said mid-morning.
The closing session of the five-day conference was due to get under way at 08:30, with the announcement of results of the election of a new-look national executive, and a closing speech by new party leader Jacob Zuma.
However, party spokesperson Thabo Masebe said delegates had gone into a closed-doors plenary, discussing reports from commissions that met on Wednesday to discuss policy issues.
"I think this is probably going to go till about lunchtime," Masebe said.
"Then after lunch we will have the closing address by the president."
He said it was still unclear when the poll results would be ready.
Voting for the 80 additional members of the executive (the top six posts were announced on Tuesday night) took place on Wednesday, and vote counting began late afternoon.
However, at the insistence of Zuma backers, ballots are being tallied manually rather than electronically scanned, which has slowed the process.
Attempts on Wednesday night to revert to electronic counting were blocked by delegates from the Eastern Cape.
- SAPA