Elections and the ‘hidden’ ballots
South Africa’s elections in 2014 have been mainly plagued by missing ballots as parties scramble to win Gauteng.
JOHANNESBURG – On Thursday May 8 black bags with ballot papers found at a Lynnwood Ridge park in Pretoria, Eyewitness News reported, “Most of the papers were apparently in favour of the Democratic Alliance (DA), but this cannot be independently confirmed.”
An audit has found black bags with the ballot papers were in fact counted, DA Leader Helen Zille said on Thursday.
In a tweet, she said the Gauteng ballots papers may have fallen off a truck but investigations into the incident are continuing.
Sources say the black bags were discovered by residents this morning and collected by an unknown man earlier in the day.
Reports are also coming in that two ballots boxes have been found hidden between and inside shacks in Alexandra, North of Johannesburg.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is also claiming that a ballot box was dumped in Diepsloot.
A ward counsellor in the area confirmed that ballot papers were found in the township.
Abraham Mabuke told EWN, “A lot of ballot papers have been found at Cobra Street, Diepsloot, by school kids.”
He says he went to collect the papers himself.
“Those ballot papers are the correct ballot papers for the national and provincial elections and are marked in favour of the ANC.”
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says it isn’t aware of any ballots that were dumped but confirmed it received two complaints from political parties.
The commission says it has forwarded these complaints to its provincial structures to investigate.
In addition, it has also emerged that voters in the North West weren’t given provincial ballot papers when they cast their ballots.
The IEC says this too is under investigation.
Gauteng results after a 85 per cent of the votes counted
ANC – 52.42 per cent
DA – 32.30 per cent
EFF – 9.96 per cent
VF Plus – 1.30 per cent
