With more than 70% of votes in the Eastern Cape captured, the FF Plus has conceded defeat, saying it could lose its sole seat in the provincial legislature.
With 72.47% of votes captured, the FF Plus had 5,214 votes by 12.22pm on Friday.
Speaking outside the IEC results centre in East London, FF Plus provincial deputy chair Bill Harington said the party was not happy with the numbers coming in.
“We expected much more and a better result at this stage,” Harington said.
“We’ve got the last stretch to go nationally, and provincially it doesn’t look that good, to be honest.”
He said the party was pinning its hopes on a few voting districts where it believed it would get strong support.
“We might lose a chair in the Eastern Cape provincial government but obviously we will rebuild and regain but we also trust the systems in place by the IEC,” Harington said.
Asked where the FF Plus went wrong, Harington said the party needed to regroup and take stock.
“We’re moving forward to 2026.
“We still need to go back as a political party and recap on what we did right or wrong.
“I feel what we did was excellent. We campaigned hard but we still need to regroup and take stock,” Harington said.
In 2014, the party obtained just 0.39% of the vote in the Eastern Cape, with no seats in the provincial legislature.
In the 2019 election, the FF Plus secured 11,548 votes, resulting in a single seat in the legislature.
Support for the party has decreased, albeit by small margins, in the Kouga, Koukamma, Dr Beyers Naudé and Blue Crane Route regions.
HeraldLIVE
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