OHANNESBURG – The Democratic Alliance declared victory in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro with 100 percent of the vote counted and confirmed.
The results of the hotly-contested metro showed the DA winning 46.65 percent of the vote to the ANC’s 40.99 percent, with the EFF trailing with 5.07 percent.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane claimed victory in the metro earlier on Thursday before the final results were announced, saying he was happy that the DA had made such large inroads in Port Elizabeth.
Meanwhile, the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay said there were widespread attempts to manipulate the vote in the metro.
At a media conference in Port Elizabeth shortly before 10pm on Thursday, the ANC said they had filed a dispute against the IEC due to “widespread irregularities” and “number of missing ballot boxes”.
The ANC cried foul, claiming to have uncovered electoral fraud when they saw marked ballot papers dumped in a tent inside the venue of the IEC nerve centre.
The IEC responded, saying the ballots had already been counted, but admitted fault in the manner in which they were discarded.
The ANC seemed determined to retain a city named after its iconic figure.
With a DA win, a coalition is a very real possibility, but Maimane said he had ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition government with the ANC.
“The ones that are in government now, we cannot work with, because we can’t run elections saying change and then work with the current government as it stands at the moment.
“So it excludes the ANC entirely. But we’ll look at other options,” Maimane said.