‘Uncounted ballots won’t be transported to IEC’s results centre’ – Mamabolo

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says uncounted ballots will not be transported from the voting stations to the results centre.

The IEC held a media briefing on its readiness for the special international votes scheduled for 17 and 18 May.

More than 76 000 South Africans living abroad will be voting over two days to elect political parties and independent candidates of their choice.

For the first time, three ballot papers will be used in the national and provincial elections.

Voting abroad

IEC chief electoral officer (CEO) Sy Mamabolo said it was all systems go for South Africans living abroad to vote, and confirmed that voting stations will be open from 7:00am to 7:00pm.

“On both voting days abroad, the Electoral Commission will keep extended hours to assist voters with any enquiries,” he said on Tuesday.

Mamabolo indicated that given the high numbers of expected voters in London in the United Kingdom (UK), the voting station will operate on both the 18 and 19 May.

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The IEC CEO said the ballot papers from abroad would only be counted after voting day in South Africa on 29 May.

“Once the ballots are back in the country, they will not be opened until the counting commences and the first order of business at that counting process is to confirm that the seals remain the same.

“So we are quite comfortable with the controls around the ballots that are cast outside of the country,” Mamabolo said.

SA special votes

Special votes in South Africa will take place on the two days preceding election day 27 and 28 May between 9:00am to 5:00pm.

Mamabolo revealed that the commission approved a total of more than 1.6 million special votes applications following the 3 May deadline.

“Of which 624 593 are for voters who will be visited at their homes or places of confinement and 1 043 483 will voters who will vote at voting stations where they are registered.”

Ballot papers counting

The IEC CEO said the counting of votes will take place at each voting station in the presence of political party agents and observers.

“There will be a result slip after the count which will be displayed at that voting station.

“All interested are allowed to capture a photo of that official result of that voting station, with their own gadgets.”

READ MORE: IEC implements new measures to improve quality of counting votes

He said uncounted ballots won’t be transported from the voting stations to the national results centre at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand on the 22 May.

“Both voting and counting will happen at the station. The used ballots will only be transported after the results slip has been concluded at that station.

“Party agents and agents of independent candidates can countersign the results slip to confirm the correctness of the count attributed to their party.”

Watch the briefing below:

Mamabolo added that the additional ballot paper would “burden” the counting process, hence, the IEC’s decision to introduce counting officers.

This will improve the quality of the results slips.

“Previously, you would count two ballots and on this occasion, that effort has to be increased by a factor of 50%.”

The IEC is in the final stages of training just over 200 000 officials who will work at the voting stations.

The final election results will be announced on Sunday, 2 June.

The extension will give the commission extra time to accurately count the votes, address any disputes, and conduct the necessary seat allocation calculations before the results announcement ceremony.

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