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ACT’s Magashule says election is rigged, wants IEC to do a recount
Magashule said an objection has been lodged with the IEC, and fraud charges laid with police.
Ace Magashule launches the African Congress For Transformation (ACT) on Vilakazi Street on 30 August 2023 in Soweto. Picture: Gallo Images/Daily Maverick/ Felix Dlangamandla
President of the African Congress for Transformation (ACT), Ace Magashule, has asked the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to do a recount and investigate possible fraud after claiming widespread vote rigging occurred at many voting stations in the Free State, Gauteng and North West.
He alleged the vote rigging seemed to target voters belonging to ACT party, claiming party members’ ballot papers had disappeared from the ballot boxes, without any valid explanation from IEC officials.
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He said an objection has been lodged with the IEC and fraud charges laid with police in the three provinces.
As of 7am on Saturday morning, the ACT had only managed to garner 11 576 votes in the Free State, which was supposed to be the party’s stronghold province.
Magashule alleged the vote rigging happened in Mangaung, Maluti-a-Phofung, Kroonstad and Sasolburg in the Fezile Dabi region and several other areas. Similar incidents also allegedly happened in Soweto.
The former ANC secretary-general claimed many ballot boxes were found empty, although voters had already cast their votes in those stations.
ACT votes given to ActionSA?
He said in some instances ACT votes were given to ActionSA by the IEC officials. When ACT party agents questioned this, they were allegedly told by the IEC staff that they thought that ACT was ActionSA.
“Our votes are given to ActionSA, here there is simple rigging. I am not even saying allegations because what we are saying is serious fraud,” Magashule said.
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In addition, he said an ANC councillor was allegedly found sitting with a presiding officer and voting material in Kroonstad.
‘We are not spoilers’ – Magashule
“The results cannot just be released, we are giving the IEC an opportunity to rectify this and we want all these things to be rectified publicly. We don’t want South Africans to think that we are spoilers, we are not spoilers. We want free and fair elections and you can’t declare elections as free and fair when there are these fundamentals.
“These are serious, it’s not just allegations, it’s facts and we will prove it through videos, we will prove it through police cases. We are actually saying let’s test one (voting) station where the entire community is affected. The boxes are there but there are no ballot papers, where are the ballot papers for special votes in some parts of the Free State, they are not there. They should be there and signed by presiding officers,” Magashule said.
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‘No way’ ACT got so few votes in Mangaung
He alleged that in Mangaung, which is the ACT’s stronghold, there was massive cheating at polling stations. “There is no way in Mangaung, you can dream of anything, out of 134 000 we can get only 890 votes and there we claim that is our stronghold. You do recounting, the whole country will be surprised,” Magashule said.
“I can tell you if you go to the Free State, there is nothing like the ANC is winning, it’s not true. Some of the ANC leaders were found in voting stations inside with the presiding officers, I am citing an example of a town called Kroonstad,” he said.
The former ANC secretary-general who established his own political party after he was fired from the ruling party, said in Kroonstad one of the ANC councillors was found inside a voting station with a presiding officer, which raised suspicion with ACT members.
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The ACT party on Friday morning lodged an objection with the IEC before the 9am deadline pertaining to the electoral process. In the complaints, as well as the criminal cases it opened at police stations, the ACT said it attached proof of ballot papers for special votes that were missing.
“We want the IEC to open up everything and recount. They must open up and investigate what we are saying so that people don’t call us spoilers, we don’t want to spoil, we really believe in this democratic process,” Magashule said.
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