The first results in South Africa's fourth democratic elections trickled in from midnight on Thursday as voting went into extra time because of a vast turnout and logistical problems.

With just under 1% of the vote counted, early results confirmed that the African National Congress (ANC) had a runaway lead over opposition parties, with the Democratic Alliance in (DA) second place.

With just less than 1% of the vote counted - about 0,09% - the DA was coming second with 5 903 votes to the ANC's 12 000-plus.

An embattled Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said out of a total of 19 726 voting stations in the country, 1 898 were still open in the early hours of Thursday morning - hours after voting was scheduled to end at 21:00 Wednesday.

Though the IEC had forecast a turnout of 80% for the poll that will almost certainly bring ANC leader Jacob Zuma to power, it said it "scrambled" to distribute more ballot papers and boxes as stations came up short. Voters - rich and poor, urban and rural - queued patiently for hours.

The commission blamed its woes on a last-minute concession allowing voters to cast ballots outside the areas where they were registered.

"The shortage of ballot boxes and papers was caused mainly by the provision in the Electoral Act that allows voters to vote at voting stations other than the ones where they are registered," said IEC official Terry Tselane.

"This also resulted in long queues."

The IEC earlier announced that all voters queueing by 21:00 would be allowed to vote following angry protests from the ANC that dispirited supporters were going home without having cast their votes.

In the fiercely contested Western Cape, the party said it managed to bring voters back to the polls in Philippi, Delft and Khayelitsha - townships that could counter a strong surge by the DA in coloured areas like Mitchell's Plain.

"We got them back, we went to fetch them and told them to stay in the queue," said Chriss Nissen, the ANC's campaign manager in the province.

DA leader Helen Zille complained that the IEC's organisation had been "pathetic", and said allowing voting to continue after the cut-off time would benefit only the ANC.

"They ran out of ballot papers, they ran out of ballot boxes," she said.

"You don't extend voting hours because you failed to get it right the first time round. It will only benefit the ANC because they have queues going round the block."

Zille, who is trying to force a review of the decision to drop corruption charges against Zuma, used a visit to the IEC result centre in Pretoria to denounce him as "a danger for democracy."

The ANC insisted it was sure to retain its two-thirds majority, despite recent surveys showing support slipping to some 60%, while the DA and the Congress of the People (Cope) were battling it out for second place.

Early national election results, put the ANC in the lead with 12 187 votes.

With about 0,09% of the vote counted, the DA was coming second with 5 903 votes. Cope recorded 1 976 votes, followed by the Independent Democrats with 671.

The Inkatha Freedom Party recorded 597 votes and the Freedom
Front Plus 497 votes.

The first results for provincial legislatures came from the small voting district of Fraserburg in the Northern Cape, with a total of 62 registered voters, of whom 56 voted.

The DA won the district with ease with 42 votes.

A clear picture of the election outcome was not expected to emerge for at least another day and Cope leader Terror Lekota refused to speculate on how his fledling party might fare on a national level.

"I am not a prophet, I am a politician," he said, and reminded reporters that the ANC breakaway party was only 126 days old.

Lekota urged a full investigation after the IEC said it had fired 59 staff suspected of irregularities. These included reports of staffers scrubbing ink off voters' hands, and the arrest on fraud charges of an electoral officer in KwaZulu-Natal hotspot Ulundi.

"He will appear in court on Thursday," IEC chairperson Brigalia
Bam said.