While the Democratic Alliance (DA) has retained the Western Cape, it failed to press the African National Congress (ANC) out of an outright majority in the province's northern neighbour, as it had hoped.

With all the results in the Western Cape captured, the DA had 55.58% of the vote, compared to the 59.38% it received in the 2014 elections.

In second place was the ANC, with 28.5%, down from 2014's 32.89%.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) almost doubled its 2.11% in 2014 to 3.98%.

The African Christian Democratic Party also saw a marked improvement, more than doubling their vote to 2.67% compared to 2014's 1.02%. 

Another big winner is the Freedom Front Plus, who obtained 1.58% of the vote compared to 2014's 0.55%.

The only new party who made a real impact in the province, is former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille's GOOD, who got 3%. Western Cape electoral officer Courtney Sampson was quick to point out that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) will only release the official results on Saturday. 

"In terms of the outcome, we can safely assume what we see [on the board with the results] is what the outcome is," Sampson said.

"No thanks to you," one of the people among the jubilant DA officials coalescing around premier-elect Alan Winde sneered. 

After Sampson's press conference, in which he had to ask the DA officials to show some respect, Winde said: "It's a huge, huge task ahead, but I'm really grateful. I want to thank the voters for the trust they have put in us."

He said while the "blue team" has won the provincial election, that now changes. 

"Now this blue team, has a bit of planning to do for every single voter, it doesn’t matter who you voted for, if you're in the Western Cape, we're there for you.

He said they have a good understanding of the province, they know "where the hurting is" and the main issues. 

"My passion is jobs and the economy," Winde said.

He conceded that he made tough promises to fulfil relating to provincial police and railway service.

"So it is going to be a lot of negotiation. Hopefully not as much fighting as in the election, hopefully, we can find ways."

"I'm not scared of a challenge, I think it is going to be an exciting ride over the next five years to build on what we have achieved under Helen Zille and her leadership. Now, let's add some innovation and some other stuff. We don’t have more money, we've got to be entrepreneurial in how we take this forward, and that is what I bring to the party."

On the drop in support in the province, Winde said many factors contributed to it, but he is happy with the 55%. 

Western Cape ANC secretary Faiez Jacobs said: "I think we ran a clean campaign, we’ve done a lot of door to door. Our focus has always been socio-economic issues. Our focus has not been on attacking a personality. "

"It is unfathomable that people still complain about high water tariffs, alcohol in schools, all those things, but yet, people vote another way. 

"For us, yes, we have to look at our branding, how do we sell our message better," Jacobs said.