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The African National Congress, having achieved just over 69% of the votes captured by late morning, appeared set to enter the National Assembly with between 223 and 257 of the 400 seats.

Its closest runner-up, the Democratic Alliance with 12,56% of the vote, would get between 40 and 46 seats -- according to calculations based on preliminary results.

The Independent Electoral Commission stressed that final sums could only been made once all the votes had been captured. By 11.20am, that percentage stood at just over 93%.

The Inkatha Freedom Party, with 6,56% of the vote, would be next in line, getting an estimated 21 to 24, followed by the United Democratic Movement with seven or eight.

The New National Party, African Christian Democratic Party and the Independent Democrats, a newcomer, could each get five or six seats. This is a decline for the NNP from its current 20 seats.

The Freedom Front Plus appeared set to retain its three existing seats.

The Pan Africanist Congress and United Christian Democratic Party could scrape in with two seats each, while the Minority Front should be able to retain its single one.

Parties that face losing their only seat in Parliament were the Azanian People's Organisation, National Action, and the Peace and Justice Congress.

Other parties that could be left out in the cold were the Employment Movement of SA, the Organisation Party of "Big Brother" television personality Bradford Wood, the Socialist Party of Azania, the United Front, the Christian Democratic Party, Keep it Straight and Simple, and the New Labour Party.

Seats allocated to a party are calculated by dividing the total valid votes by 401, adding one, and leaving off the decimal.

Once the calculation is made, seats can be allocated to smaller parties proportionally if there is a need to make up 400, an IEC official explained.

While not all the votes have been captured, it appeared on provisional calculations that a party would need between 39 000 and 45 000 votes per seat.

In 1999, the figure was 39,000 - Sapa.

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