Pretoria - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says it is in “pretty good shape, ready and prepared” for Election Day which kicks off at voting stations across the country tomorrow morning.
There are only a few hours left before South Africa’s 23.39 million registered voters head to the polls in the fifth democratic elections.
“We are counting the hours, our plans are in place and we are ready to welcome voters from 7am until 9pm tomorrow,” the IEC’s Chief Electoral Officer, Mosotho Moepya, said on Tuesday.
He appealed to voters to exercise patience and tolerance as well as act in a manner which shows pride in the country at their respective voting stations.
“We make a special plea to those communities which have been expressing their frustrations and grievances through protest action to respect the rights of all South Africans to make their voice heard through the electoral process.
“To the voters we say: ‘Don’t miss this opportunity to make your voice heard and to have your say in the future of our country’,” he said.
Moepya said he was pleased to report that the weather is predicted to be clear over the most parts of the country with only a 30 % chance of scattered thunderstorms in parts of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.
However, the strong winds - in cases up to 45km/h - which have been forecast for parts of the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, Free State and North West could pose a challenge for temporary voting stations based in tents.
Special Votes
Regarding the special votes which ended at 5pm earlier today, Moepya said the overall reports from provinces were that the process was run relatively smoothly.
“Most provinces reported to having completed more than half of their home visits and voting station special votes yesterday and were on track to finish this process by close of business today except for few instances,” he said.
Moepya said in the eThekwini Metro in Kwazulu-Natal there were over 44 000 approved special votes but by yesterday only 21 000 special votes had been completed.
“Additional staff had been deployed to expedite the processing of the remaining home visits today and the commission has instructed that home visits should continue if necessary beyond the 5pm scheduled stop today,” he said.
Special votes had been affected to varying degrees in a number of areas due to community protest action. The most severely impacted area was Maruleng in Limpopo where some voting stations could not proceed on account of threats posed to the process.
However, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer: Electoral Operations Sy Mamabolo said the situation had been stabilised and voting was expected to run smoothly on Wednesday.
With regard to the incident in which IEC staff in Kwa-Thema in Springs on Gauteng’s East Rand had seemingly used a nearby party agent’s house to store materials overnight, Moepya said: “This was in clear contraventions of the established protocol for the storage of voting materials and the elections officials involved were immediately removed as election officials and replaced.”
He said the materials were recovered and quarantined.
Further investigations will be conducted to establish whether charges should be brought against the election officials.
“The commission takes any threat to the integrity and credibility of the voting process extremely seriously. Any action or inaction which impacts on the credibility or perceptions of credibility will be swiftly and decisively dealt with.
“We thank those who brought this to our attention for their vigilance and help,” he said.
Oversees votes
On voting abroad, Moepya said a total of 15 327 completed ballots had been delivered to Election House in Centurion from 77 missions.
Ballots from the remaining 39 overseas missions were expected to be delivered today and tomorrow.-SAnews.gov.za
