Lines at the voting station in Saulsville in Attidgeville, Tshwane. Picture: Gallo Images / Alet Pretorius)
Despite widespread technical glitches and protests that marked the start of special voting, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has assured voters nobody will be prevented from exercising the right to vote.
Some voting stations experienced service delivery protests and technical issues countrywide that resulted in delays to open and in some areas stations were unable to start.
However, IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said despite these incidents, special voting got off to a steady start with the vast majority of voting stations reporting being open and ready on time.
The home visit teams were deployed as planned.
In 1,174 voting stations where no special vote applications were received, the stations would not open for both days of special votes.
“We have a report of an incident where the commission was unable to open in eight voting stations. This was in Camperdown, KwaZulu-Natal where community members were unhappy with matters related to traditional leadership,” Mamabolo said.
Mamabolo further said the IEC was aware of protests at some stations in the Eastern Cape, but the commission was working closely with security services to deal with the situation.
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The IEC undertook to address the issue of shortage of personal protective equipment at a voting station in Alexandra north of Johannesburg as it had enough supply of PPEs for all the 185,000 commission officials stationed at all voting stations countrywide.
He was responded to journalists during a briefing at the IEC Results Operations Centre this afternoon to reports that some voters experienced glitches and were unable to cast their special votes.
“Nobody will be denied the right to vote because of technical glitches. There are people who applied for special votes and they have to exercise their right to vote,” Mamabolo said.
Reports emanating from the Eastern Cape said some voting stations had not opened and IEC tents were broken down in North West due to service delivery protests.
Mamabolo said he was aware of the Eastern Cape situation and they would bring it under control with assistance of the police.
They would work together with the disaster management to restore the tents in North West and resume operations.
“Between now and tomorrow we will ensure those stations open and those votes cast are received,”Mamabolo said.
He dismissed as “bit of exaggeration” reports that 2,000 voters were denied the opportunity to vote in Tshwane due to technical problems.
“You have to be registered on the voters roll and then make an application for a special vote. Those who proved that they visited voting stations on 18 and 19 October but were unable to cast their special votes, will vote. Nobody will be denied his or her right to vote because of technical glitches,” Mamabolo said.
At the beginning of special votes, a station in Alexandra had reportedly not received the ballot papers and PPEs were not delivered to the IEC staff.
But Mamabolo said this would be addressed because the commission had sufficient supply of the equipment.
He said they were always concern about the voter turn-out at every election hence the commission always strived for maximum turnout at all times.
IEC had approved a record 1,110,257 applications for special votes in the 2021 municipal elections. This is a 62% increase in the number of special votes compared to 2016 local government election.
The commission said this morning that of the 1,110,194 applications received, 507,364 or 49% were home visits and 602,780 or 51% will be cast at a voting station.
It said election officials will visit the addresses provided by voters who applied for home visits over the two days.
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“These voters must be home to cast special votes. Home visits are provided for those largely unable to travel to the voting station due to infirmity and other circumstances leading to immobility,” an IEC statement said.
Special voters began casting their special votes at 8am until 5pm today and the process will continue tomorrow.
“A voter whose application for a special vote was approved but who for whatever reason was unable to cast a special vote may still cast their ballot at their voting station on Election Day,” IEC said.
The voting day would be on Monday from 7.00am to 9.00pm
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