The African National Congress (ANC) has slightly increased its lead over opposition parties in the national election and currently stands on 63,2% with three million votes counted.

The ruling party broke through the 60% ceiling early on Thursday morning and was set to achieve a two-thirds majority in the country's fourth democratic election.

At 8am the Democratic Alliance (DA) was in second place with 19,92% (584 822 votes) and the Congress of the People (Cope) third with 7,73% of the vote (226 755).

Smaller opposition parties were still lagging behind with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on 2,7%, the Independent Democrats (ID) on 1,7% and the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) on 1,2%.

Votes were still trickling into the national results centre in Pretoria and a voter turnout of more than 70% was expected. With 23-million South Africans registered to vote, this meant that almost 20% of votes had been counted by 8am.

The DA was still leading the closely watched race in the Western Cape with 53,8% (304 409 votes) against the ANC's 26,8% (151 847 votes).