It’s now all systems go for the elections

Commissioner of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), Janet Love, yesterday said all election material would be transported from local warehouses to the 22,924 voting stations on Monday morning for the start of special votes that run until the following day.

The material in transit would be escorted by the SA Police Service and other security personnel.

Love said all special votes cast on Monday and Tuesday would be stored overnight at a secure storage location before being transported to the voting stations on election day – May 8.

A total of 26.7 million registered voters were eligible to cast their ballots for the national and provincial elections.

Voting stations will open from 7am until 9pm for the three days of voting. The stations would be manned by 189,000 election officials comprising volunteers.

An average of eight election officials, including the presiding officer and deputy presiding officer, have been allocated per voting station.

Voters whose addresses do not appear on the voters’ roll would have their addresses captured onto the IEC system on the spot to produce their address to the presiding officers.

Love said when voting stations close at 9pm on Wednesday, any person still standing in the queue will be allowed to vote, even after the deadline.

The counting of votes will start immediately after the closing and the results slip will be signed by the presiding officers and party agents, who will be encouraged to take pictures of result slips to compare with the final outcome.

Of the 774,094 voters granted permission to cast special votes, 452,418 will be visited by IEC officials at their homes while 321,676 will cast their votes at the polling stations on Monday and Tuesday.

Those qualifying for special votes were the physically infirm, the disabled, pregnant mothers and those who would be busy on Wednesday, such as security forces, IEC officials and other qualifying categories whose applications had been approved by the IEC.

Those who had already voted would have their left thumb inked with an indelible ink.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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