The Economic Freedom Fighters national chairman Dali Mpofu said he was "extremely happy" with the party's progress in the local government election‚ despite falling short of the 10% national support it had hoped to win going into the polls. Results by 4.30pm on Thursday showed the party had gained 7.42 of the popular support‚ with close to 1.5 million votes. Mpofu‚ speaking to Power Fm at the IEC's Results Operation Centre in Pretoria on Thursday‚ said the campaign had been tough and gruelling.How did your ward/city vote? Click here for the #ElectionResults:http://bit.ly/2apwZKU"As of 2014‚ we are starting from a zero base. Anything we get is a bonus‚" Mpofu said. He said on Thursday afternoon‚ the party had a support from 1.5 million people and he was seeing some of the big players taking significant losses. "For a new kid on the block with little experience‚ we outstretched ourselves.We pulled it off. We managed to have candidates across the country. For a party without funding it stretched us a lot‚" Mpofu said. Mpofu said its competitors the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance had a lot more funding to devote to their campaigns."With that muscle power of our opponents and with our relative inexperience‚ what we have done is phenomenal." He said the reason for entering candidates in all areas was about changing a political landscape.Mpofu said if there were hung councils‚ it was because of the existence of the EFF. He reiterated the party’s stance that it would not form any coalitions with the ANC."For the party of our size‚ this election is about other strategic considerations." He said the results would assist the party to determine whether it had changed its demographics about the age of its voters‚ or whether they were urban or rural based."We have surpassed the 1.1 million [votes] that we obtained in 2014. We are chasing a new milestone."..