Elections 2024: Results-capturing is underway at the Durban ICC

THE Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has assured the commencement of results-processing at the Durban ICC. The IEC reported that most voting stations in the province closed at 09:00 on Wednesday, May 29, while other voting stations closed as late as 02:00 on Thursday morning to ensure that every voter was attended to. 

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“The late afternoon surge in numbers, mainly in eThekwini, meant staff had to devise mechanisms to manage the queues, including separating the voters’ roll by surname and creating multiple streams of voting. Following the technical glitch encountered with the VMDs, which contributed to the development of queues, bulk communication was sent pretty early to staff to revert to the manual processing of voters. This, however, became a double-edged sword as staff would not look at their cellphones whilst trying to fix the VMDs so the lines could move faster,” stated the IEC. 

They further reported that the counting process progressed smoothly in all voting stations without any interruptions.

“Mpofana Municipality in Mooi River, with 27 voting stations, was the first municipality in the province to have results captured and finalised. In eThekwini Metro Municipality, which is the biggest municipality in the province, area managers are still transporting results from voting stations to the ICC results-capturing site. 

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“As a rule, and in all instances, results are transmitted in tamper-proof envelopes from stations, which have to be checked by staff and political liaison committees when they arrive at the Municipal Electoral Office to ensure they are still intact before results are captured and audited. Our results-capturing system has a built-in percentage parameter, where anything above that set parameter is treated as an exception. This prompts a need to double-check and verify the correctness of that parameter – if it is correct, the exception is then cleared. Commission staff are still clearing exceptions on the system,” said the IEC.

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According to S55 of the Electoral Act, anyone can lodge objections with the commission concerning voting and counting of votes if they believe that an incident at the voting station during the voting may materially impact the election results and prejudice the credibility of the election. Such objections are lodged directly with the commission, which considers them and makes a ruling. Such objections may be lodged anytime between the finishing of the count and Friday, May 31, at 21:00 at objections@elections.org.za.

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