South African elections free and fair: AU

Pretoria, May 9 (IANS) The African Union (AU) declared Friday that the 2014 South African national and provincial elections were free, fair, transparent and credible.

"The elections were also peaceful and reflect the wishes and aspirations of South Africans," the AU Election Observer Mission said in its preliminary report.

The mission will release its final and comprehensive report after two months, SA News reported.

The mission is led by former Ghanaian president John Kufuo, and is made up of representatives from the Pan African Parliament (PAP), human rights groups and civil society from over 25 African countries.

"There was a high level of tolerance between the contesting political parties and their supporters. The mission also noted the professionalism of the security forces," deputy head of the mission Ibrahim Fall said.

The mission noted that most of the polling stations were located in public places, and the commission conveniently placed signposts to direct voters to these centres.

The election materials were adequate in most of the polling stations visited and were deployed well in advance.

The South African Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will announce the results of the elections Saturday with the African National Congress leading by getting 62.5 percent of the votes.

The ANC was followed by by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 22 percent and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 6.04 percent.