IEC keeps an eye on college elections

Gert Sibande FET College held their annual elections for their Student Board Council on 5 February.

The college contacted the Lekwa MEO, Municipal Electoral Office, to help them with the elections.

The elections were staged at all the campuses in the area namely Standerton, Balfour, Ermelo and Amersfoort.

The voting stations were setup according to the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) standards.

“Altogether 728 students took part in the elections with 45 students voting for their first time,” Mr Deon Bekker, election project coordinator for the Lekwa MP305 area, said.

“Nine ballots were spoilt and three were cancelled during the election.”

Spoilt votes are when the voter has voted for more than the maximum votes on a ballot, in this case it was 10, so if you voted for 11 and above, the ballot will be spoilt and not used in the final count.

Cancelled ballots are when the voter has made a mistake, in which case the presiding IEC officer can issue a new ballot.

The student registration lists from the college were used as a voters roll and the students used their registration cards as identification.

Counting began directly after the elections on the same day and results were announced at 4pm on 5 February.

“A chairman, the one with the most votes, and the vice-chairman, second most votes, were also announced on the same day,” Mr Bekker also said.

“An outreach programme was presented to the phase 2 students, students voting for the first time, and the importance of registration for the 2016 Local Government Elections was discussed before the elections began.”

According to the IEC the election process was declared free and fair.

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