Tips for election results reporting – and final results on Sunday 2 June

The IEC has announced that for the first time, the final election results will not be declared on the Saturday after the elections, but one day later, on Sunday 2 June.

The delay will give the IEC additional time to count the votes (due to the introduction of a third ballot in national and provincial elections), deal with disputes and do the seat allocation calculations before the results announcement ceremony.

Journalists need to factor this timeframe into their election week planning, as was demonstrated at a recent results reporting workshop, with tips on covering the Race for Votes and Race for Seats with the help of the CSIR/SABC results forecasting model.