OPINION

ANC falls just short of 50% of the seats in Ekurhuleni

Party will need coalition partners with 4 seats in order to secure a majority on council

ANC drops below 50% in Ekurhuleni

Pretoria - According to preliminary results on the IEC's results system on Saturday afternoon, the ANC has surprising dropped just below 50% in Ekurhuleni, winning 109 out of 224 seats in the metro.

With 49.04% of the total valid votes, the ANC has won 48.66% of the seats in Ekurhuleni. Out of these 109 seats, 76 are ward seats and 33 are proportional representation (PR) seats.

The DA has 34.43% of the total votes, with 77 party seats. This is made up of 35 ward seats and 42 PR, with 34.38 of the seats won.

This means there is currently a hung council in Ekurhuleni.

The EFF has 25 seats - 1 ward seat and 24 PR.

The AIC got 4 PR seats, the IFP and FF Plus 2 PR each, while the PAC, the Patriotic Alliance, Cope and the Independent Ratepayers Association of SA got 1 PR seat each.

If the ANC convinces a smaller party like the AIC to go into a coalition with it, it could see the party retaining the metro.

This article first appeared on News24