This year’s General Elections are marred by major setbacks, this as other voters were denied access to vote for Regional and Provincial Elections.
This was despite them registering and being confirmed by the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) confirmation of their actual Voting Districts.
The matter was raised by the Freedom Front Plus (FFP) national head of elections, Wouter Wessels on Thursday.
Speaking with The Star Wessels said he was disappointed with the manner the IEC was handling the situation.
“The IEC seems unbothered by the situation, and this could have a negative impact on the election.
It would have been something if voters who were given a single ballot were the ones who did not reside in Gauteng but in this case the voters resides in the areas of their polling stations but were given one ballot instead of three,” he added.
Furthermore, he questioned how the commission was going to deal with it when it came to counting.
Wessels said the party took up the matter with the commission, however, it seemed not to have a clear answer to provide to the party.
The commission encountered many glitches on Wednesday during voting, such as malfunctioning of the voter management Devices (VMD) at majority of polling stations.
IEC’s Sy Mamabolo, however, said this challenges did not affect voter’s ability to cast their votes.
“The VMD is an important part of the voting process but it is not a legal requirement. So the legal requirement at the voting station remains the voters roll and all voting stations were provided with voters roll.
As soon as we experienced those difficulties, we advised all presiding officers to revert to voters roll which is a legal requirement competent for voting,” he added.
African Congress for Transformation (ACT) leader Ace Magashule lambasted the IEC by accusing it of robbing his party members of missing out on contesting for a seat at the National Assembly.
Magashule said this on Wednesday evening when The Star contacted him.
The Star