Voting will not be extended, says IEC

Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) commissioner Sy Mamabolo said there would be no provision for a second day of voting.

Mamabolo was responding to concerns that Wednesday’s elections could spill over to Thursday.

Malema accused IEC of deliberate delays

EFF leader Julius Malema had also accused the IEC of deliberate delays that led to the development of long queues, with some people complaining about being on the line for eight hours and more.

“There are no deliberate delays on the part of the commission; we want to assist everybody who is in the queue and take their ballot. We have no plan for the second day of voting; we have never had such a plan, so voting will conclude until everybody who is in the queue is given an opportunity,” he said.

Political party leaders had started to gather at the Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Midrand, where a leader board was set up to show the results as they trickled in.

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Leader board will reflect results as they come in

Mamabolo said it was not clear which provinces would be the first to send the results, but he said the leader board would start reflecting results as soon as audited votes start coming in.

He said in past elections, the results would come in at around 1am but because of the multiple ballots, it would take longer this year.

“Once the captured results have been audited and there are no exceptions related to the result, you will begin to see the votes reflecting on the leaderboard,” he said.

Mamabolo said the commission would look into the matter of a house in Pretoria belonging to a political party leader being used as a voting station.

Fake news reports and attacks

The IEC had raised concerns about fake news and attacks on the integrity of the commission and the elections.

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However, political parties such as the ANC said they were confident in the IEC and its work.