Markets are not expected to react too negatively if the election results are delayed by a sample vote audit. But the markets are not expected to respond well to indications that the election result as a whole is in question, an analyst says.

This follows an announcement by the IEC on Thursday that it will do an audit of a small sample of votes following allegations of double voting in some areas, and that this could lead to a delay in the release of the election results. Stanlib chief economist Kevin Ling told News24 on Thursday that the market’s reaction to the news was likely to be fairly muted, but this all depended on the nature of the delay is.

“If the delay is seen as a technical issue, I don’t expect the markets to react all that much because they’ve already got sight of what the final result looks like,” he said. Ling added that, as long as the delay is not expected to change the outcome materially, the market won’t be too concern.

But if the delay brings into question the actual results, or if a rerun of the election starts to look likely the markets would generally react negatively, he said. As long as there is a proper explanation from the IEC over the delay of the results and an assurance that the entire election is not being called into question, the market should be calm, he said. – Sarah Evans