ANC lodges dispute over Mandela Bay poll

The ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay says it has lodged a dispute with the IEC over fairness of the elections in the hotly-contested metro.

Port Elizabeth - The ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay says it has lodged a dispute with the IEC over fairness of the elections in the hotly-contested Eastern Cape metro.

This comes after ANC national leadership confirmed to Independent Media earlier that the party would call for a recount of the poll through its regional structure after the discovery of ballot boxes and papers in the metro.

But the DA has accused the ruling party of being spiteful, saying change was painful.

ANC regional task team coordinator Beza Ntshona said there had been widespread irregularities at voting stations across the metro, and that the results – the votes are still being counted – would not reflect the will of the people of the metro.

He was addressing the media at the IEC results operations centre in Port Elizabeth on Thursday night (August4).

Ntshona said they did not consider the elections to be free and fair, following the discovery of batches of marked ballot papers in a tent on the premises of the results centre earlier on Thursday.

He also claimed that some ballot boxes had gone missing, with some found “misplaced” at different locations around the metro.

Ntshona said the 35 tents that were used as voting stations – some of them collapsed or were blown away by Wednesday’s strong winds – had caused delays during the voting process.

“There were widespread attempts to manipulate the elections,” he said, and lashed out at the conduct of DA representatives at polling stations, and at the IEC for not securing the tent where the ballots were found. He added that the ANC provincial and national structures had been notified about the lodged dispute.

DA Eastern Cape leader and mayoral candidate, Athol Trollip, hit back at the ANC when he addressed the media shortly after the ruling party’s impromptu briefing.

“Lento besiyifuna siyifumene (we have received what we wanted). We have won Nelson Mandela Bay ... The facts are the DA will be the biggest (political) party in the metro,” he said, addressing cheering DA supporters gathered outside the results centre.

But the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Eastern Cape said marked ballot papers which were found will not affect the results of the elections in the metro.

IEC provincial electoral officer Thami Mraji said the matter was being investigated by police.

“The case was opened with the police and the matter is now sub judice,” said Mraji.

He remained mum on who opened the case and how long the public can expect the conclusion of the investigation.

Mraji said over 98% of the results in the province were already been audited by 21: 00 on Thursday evening. The voter turnout for the 2016 municipal elections in the Eastern Cape was at 47.27% according to Mraji.

The ANC's objection may result in further delays in declaring the results of the election in the metro.

Election Bureau