No formal objections to elections

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Pretoria - No formal objections have been submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) over the voting process in Wednesday's municipal elections, says the IEC's Chief Electoral Officer, Advocate Pansy Tlakula.

While two political parties had indicated that they might submit objections, so far no objections had been lodged, Tlakula told reporters at the IEC's Results Operation Centre on Thursday.

She added that she was "not at liberty" to elaborate on the names of the political parties or the nature of the objections they indicated they would raise, as a formal objection had not been lodged.

Tlakula also revealed that there had been one application for a recount in Ekurhuleni, where officials had counted all the ballots for proportional representation and wards together. "The Commission has ordered a recount there," she said.

It was still too early to determine if there was an increase in voter turnout during Wednesday's election.

Tlakula said a number of metropolitan councils - such as Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay, Ekurhuleni, City of Johannesburg, Mangaung, Tshwane, eThekwini and the City of Cape Town - had not released the majority of the results by Thursday afternoon and as such, no final figure on the voter turnout was available.