Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- South African political parties on Friday expressed satisfaction with the manner in which the local government elections were conducted this week.

The elections were held on Wednesday, in which the ruling African National Congress (ANC) took the lead.

ANC spokesperson Khusela Sangoni told Xinhua that the elections were held in a free and fair manner.

"The ANC is happy with the manner the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) handled the elections. The IEC again conducted the elections in a free, fair and credible manner. We are happy also that it was peaceful and incident free," she said.

The ANC said it was pleased that other political parties managed to rein in their supporters as there were no incidences of violence.

Despite a resounding victory, the ANC lost in President Jacob Zuma's homeland of Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal Province to the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

The ANC also lost the strategic Nelson Mandela Bay metro to the Democratic Alliance (DA) .

The ANC however expressed satisfaction with what they achieved.

The party got over 14 million votes, compared to the 8.1 million it garnered in 2011, according to the votes counted so far.

The DA, which came second after the ANC, also expressed satisfaction with what it has achieved.

"We are happy with our performance. We managed to wrestle Nelson Mandela Bay from the ANC and are expecting to win Tshwane (Pretoria) ... We are also happy with the electoral process. There were glitches, but they were sorted out," DA spokesperson Phumzile Van Damme said.

She said the DA also did well in the country's economic hub, Gauteng province. The DA is expected to win the executive capital of Tshwane as it is leading in the polls.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) came third in the elections.

By 6:00pm on Friday, about 97 percent of the votes had been counted. The ANC was leading with 54.3 percent of the votes, with the DA trailing with 26.43 percent and the EFF with 8.02 percent.

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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