The next step: What happens after all election results have been confirmed?

Photo: IEC / Twitter

It’s been a long week, but we’re nearly at the end of the process. Here’s when the election results will be declared, and what happens next.

We’re nearly home and dry, South Africa. The IEC has confirmed that ‘99.9% of all election results’ have been captured by their system, with only the final checks and balances left to execute on Thursday. It’s expected that the Electoral Commission will officially declare the results at 18:00 this evening – but what happens next?

WHEN WILL THE ELECTION RESULTS BE CONFIRMED?

The process becomes highly administrative from this point. The immediate steps after the final election results are announced might not be glamorous, but they are absolutely vital to our democratic process.

There are now fewer than 1 000 ward results left to scan, out of a possible 64 502

The Commission will then formally declare the final results, expected to take place at 18:00 on Thursday.

Names of all elected councillors will be published by the IEC.

The councils in their new forms will then be asked to reconvene, to officially ratify the new line-ups

In the meantime, talks to form coalitions in major metros and municipalities are set to last long into the weekend.

By Tom Head.

Full story at The South African.