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‘Ballots in the bush’ saga hangs over 2024 final election results
An investigation is underway in Mpumalanga where MK party members claimed to have found burnt ballot papers.
Former president and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party leader, Jacob Zuma. Picture: Phill Magakoe / AFP
Tensions are mounting in the run-up of the announcement of the 2024 election results with the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party posting footage of burnt ballot papers found discarded in bushes in Mpumalanga on Sunday afternoon.
The party noted in the post on X that police are currently on the scene in Skaaprus, south of Ermelo, where it claims members discovered ballot papers hidden in bushes.
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View MapThe fledging party has turned out to be the biggest “disruptor” on the 2024 election landscape, boasting the lion’s share of votes in KwaZulu-Natal.
Ballots in the bush: MK party demands ‘re-election’
In its post, it alluded to MK party leader Jacob Zuma’s allegations of vote-rigging by saying that it wants a “re-election” because of “similar vote-rigging tactics used in KZN and Gauteng”.
Zuma at IEC: ‘People will be provoking us’
This latest allegation of a flawed election process follows the 82-year-old Zuma’s late-night visit to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) National Results Centre in Midrand on Saturday.
In his briefing, the former president issued an unveiled threat to the IEC if the commission decides to go ahead and declare the election results at 6pm on Sunday evening.
“Nobody must declare tomorrow. People will be provoking us,” Zuma said, before adding:
Don’t rush us. Nobody is going to announce tomorrow. We have more information to give.
IEC dashboard crash and allegations of ‘vote-rigging’
According to Zuma, the MK party has “proof” that vote-rigging allegedly went on “in the background” when the IEC dashboard crashed and was down for about two hours on Friday morning.
On Saturday morning, the MK party called for a manual recount of the ballots, claiming that the process was “rigged” to prevent it from securing an outright majority in KwaZulu-Natal.
Zuma’s daughter has further accused the IEC of being in cahoots with the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the alleged vote-rigging.
ALSO READ: Zuma at IEC: ‘Nobody is going to announce the results tomorrow’
MK party and the Hammarsdale ballots
Three days before the May 29 election, MK party members illegally entered a voting station warehouse in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal, recorded the voting material stored there and then created a viral disinformation thread alleging the material was being used to rig the election.
In its response to the incident, the IEC said it would take legal action against the MK party members.
NOW READ: IEC responds to eThekwini ‘vote-rigging’ videos circulated by MK party
