By Simon Nare
The Independent Electoral Commission has admitted there were a few glitches that blighted the first day of the special voting across the country but dismissed them as insignificant given the scale of the number of approved voting.
This was the response from IEC officials at the first press briefing at the national results operations centre at the Ghalagher Estate in Midrand. Official faced tough questions from the media about voting stations that opened late and others relating to voters who could not find their names on the register.
In particular, it was put to the IEC that at an old age home in Soweto, resident were denied their democratic right to vote as voting did not take place.
Deputy chief electoral officer Masego Shiburi acknowledged the incident and said in the case of the voting stations opening late, that was due to the late arrival of voting materials and said stations couldn’t open without materials.
He described it as an isolated incident and this was incomparable and represented 0.1% of the challenges in light of the fact there are 1.6 million approved special voters across the country.
“The challenges (reported today) are not comparable,” said Shiburi.
Immediately after the press briefing, footage was posted on the IEC official media WhatsApp group where an unmarked car was seen leaving a voting station allegedly without a police escort. In the background, a man can be heard alleging that the car taking the ballots was being driven by ANC comrades.
In the same footage, another car can be seen carrying the ballots but this time being escorted by the police. The IEC is yet to comment on the footage.
On the overall operations of the day, Shiburi said the commission was pleased with the way the voting progressed.
“As at 2pm today, an estimated 201 794 voting station visits of special votes were processed in 22 626 service points. A total of 624 593 voters will be visited by 62 000 officials over the two days, from the Electoral Commission, accompanied by political party agents and observers, where they are available.
“The Commission reminds those who qualified for special votes that they will only be visited at the given address once. If the voter is not present at the given address, they will be able to cast their vote at the voting station where they are registered,” he said.
Shiburi said the cast vote today and tomorrow will be stored away and counted together with the those cast on the national elections on Wednesday.
He urged those who had registered to vote to go cast their votes.
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