A tight race is on between the Congress of the People and the Democratic Alliance for the number two spot in the Northern Cape.

According to the latest results released by the Independent Electoral Commission in Pretoria around 4pm, Cope had 36 631 votes to the DA's 29 014.

The African National Congress remained far ahead with 131 502 votes.

A total of 222 498 votes had been counted out of the 554 registered voters in the province. It was still unclear how many of these followed through by voting on Wednesday.

Election results trickle in

Patricia De Lille's Independent Democrats was currently in fourth spot with 11 597 votes. The Freedom Front Plus got about a quarter of the ID's total with 3214 votes. Cope and the Democratic Alliance were also vying for second place in the provincial legislature, with 37 and 27 661 votes respectively.

The ANC currently had 129 192 votes of the 220 539 votes counted for the provincial legislature.