Pretoria - The Electoral Commission (IEC) on Monday expressed satisfaction with the start of the casting of special votes in the 2016 Local Government Elections with most voting stations opening on time.
“The Commission is highly satisfied with the start of special voting,” Chief Electoral Officer Mosotho Moepya said on Monday.
This as South Africans across the country who had previously applied to cast special votes in the 2016 elections began casting their votes through home visits and the opening of some voting stations.
A total of 719 222 applications were approved for the elections including 315 597 (40%) home visits and 403 625 (56%) votes to be cast at voting stations across the country.
Special voting, which the IEC has scheduled for today and tomorrow, began on time at most stations around the country and will conclude at 5pm.
Delays in voting
At the first briefing to be hosted by the IEC at the National Results Operation Centre (ROC), the Commission reported a few cases where voting was briefly delayed and in some case voting had not got underway by 11am.
In one incident, said Moepya, three election staff were involved in three separate car accidents while on route to voting stations in the Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
In Limpopo, Samual Phasha, the Presiding Officer of a station in Tubatse-Fetakgomo Municipality was seriously injured and taken to hospital while the Presiding Officer in Mpumalanga and an area manager in KwaZulu-Natal were not seriously injured and were now on duty.
In another incident that hampered voting was the incorrect ballot papers being delivered to voting stations. According to the IEC, four minor incidents of incorrect ballot papers were delivered to voting stations. In all the cases the outer covers of the ballot books were correct but the contents were ballot papers belonging to a different ward.
Community protest action also delayed the opening of some stations. Some stations were not open by 11am due to protest action preventing elections staff from accessing the station. The areas affected by protests included ward 8 in Ratlou Municipality in the North West, ward 11 in Emfuleni and ward 6 and ward 16 in Midvaal in Gauteng.
Ward 1 in Umzimkhulu in KwaZulu-Natal and ward 19 in Mbizana and ward 16 in Ntabankulu in the Eastern Cape were also affected by the protests.
Heavy overnight rains in the Eastern Cape led to some voting stations being inaccessible. Voting stations in temporary infrastructure such as tents were also affected.
Complaints
Moepya said the IEC has to date received 28 complaints related to alleged violations of the Electoral Code of Conduct. Twenty of the complaints have been resolved through a legal process, mediation and a few closed and withdrawn due to a lack of evidence.
“One case was referred to the Electoral Code which on Friday disqualified a ward candidate for ward 7 in Tshwane. Votes cast for this candidate will not count,” explained Moepya.
The other seven cases are under investigation. – SAnews.gov.za
