KZN security cluster identifies over 200 high-risk voting stations in province
Outlining plans to ensure elections are safe in the province, officials from KwaZulu-Natal’s security cluster said the identified high-risk areas will have heavy police deployment.
FILE: A voting station sign during voter registration. Picture: EWN
DURBAN - According to the KwaZulu-Natal’s Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster, more than 200 voting stations in the province have been identified as high-risk ahead of the 2024 polls.
Officials from the security cluster have outlined the plans to make sure elections are safe in the highly-contested province.
The identified hotspot areas will see heavy police deployment.
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With KwaZulu-Natal being a highly-contested region in the upcoming elections, safety and security is a big concern.
The province has also recorded a number of politically motivated killings and violence.
Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said they've had to do a risk analysis on these areas, as well as voting stations.
“So, high risk is not necessarily the whole area or entire ward but its voting stations. So, of all the voting stations - we have over 4,000 of them and we had to profile each one of them. There’s a total of about 215 of them that are of high risk in the province.”
He added that while about 1,000 voting stations are confirmed to be medium-risk, this could change before the polls.