#SpecialVotes: IEC has ‘teething’ problems

Incorrect ballot papers delivered to the voting stations and protests are some the issues the IEC says affected the first day of special voting.

Johannesburg - Incorrect ballot papers delivered to the voting stations and community protests in some parts of the country are some the issues the IEC’s chief electoral officer Mosotho Moepya says affected the first day of special voting for the local government elections.

Moeypa told journalists on Monday at the National Results Operations Centre in Pretoria that a few voting stations in the North West, Midvaal in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape were still not open by 11am due to protests that prevented IEC staff from gaining access to the voting stations.

The commission has so far received 28 complaints pertaining to the violation of the electoral code.

One of these areas was Vuwani in Limpopo, which was affected by protests a few months ago over municipal demarcation.

Moeypa said this was nothing to worry about as the commission had taken a decision not to conduct special voting in the area because only 32 applications for special voting were received for Vuwani.

Besides the “teething” problems, the IEC said it was satisfied with the first day of special voting and would use Monday and Tuesday to resolve some of the challenges in the run-up to Wednesday’s elections.

The IEC has received over 700 000 special votes' application for this year’s elections, three times more than in the 2011 local government elections.

The second day of voting takes place on Tuesday. Stations will be open from 8am till 5pm.

Elections Bureau