Special votes wrapping up in W-Cape

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Pretoria - The second day of special voting for 25 000 people in the Western Cape is going well, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said on Tuesday.

"Everything is as it should be and we are ready to deal with any eventualities should there be any," Reverend Courtney Sampson said about the special vote casting which ends this afternoon at 5pm.

Sampson said that 7 000 of the overall figure had applied to vote at the 1 224 voting stations that have opened for special votes while 18 000 other people had asked to vote at home.

According to the IEC, more than 200 000 South Africans had applied for special votes, which included members of the South African Police Service who will be on duty on voting day, voting station staff, media, political party agents as well as voters who are deployed from home for work reasons.

He said the province's 1 572 voting stations are ready to open their doors for all voters at 7am tomorrow. "We are ready and staff have been trained," he said.