WC IEC putting plans in place to deal with bad weather, power cuts, unrest on election day

CAPE TOWN - The IEC in the Western Cape says it's planning for a number of eventualities that could impact next month's polls - from bad weather to load shedding and even community unrest. 

In the past, wet weather has impacted voter turnout, while storms and flash floods have sometimes caused damage to temporary voting stations. 

IEC Western Cape head, Michael Hendrickse, says the commission is working with disaster management teams across the province to ensure the polls are unaffected by these factors.

Hendrickse says portable lights are being procured to counter the possibility of load shedding on election day. 

Voting stations will close at 9pm on 29 May but electoral staff are set to continue working behind closed doors for several hours to tally the votes.

"Because of the counting process, you are now having a third ballot that might add to the time of counting at the voting station, which has a knock-on effect [in delivering the result]."

Last year, voter registration was impacted in the Philippi area of the metro where community unhappiness over service delivery prevented the opening of voter stations. 

"Where there are certain gang activities or community protests, we will engage with the community around certain protest action, so that our elections are not disrupted and then obviously working closely with South African Police Services." 

Hendrickse says despite the extra ballot paper, it's still the commission's intention for results from the more than 1,500 voting stations in the province to be transmitted to its provincial results centre the following day.