Minor glitches but no major incidents during voting, says WC IEC

CAPE TOWN - The Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Western Cape said that despite minor glitches that delayed the opening of some voting stations, no major incidents had been reported.

IEC provincial head, Michael Hendrickse, said that despite complaints about voter management devices not working at some stations, largely due to connectivity, the voting process should not be impacted.

The late arrival of IEC staff means not all voting stations opened at 7am.

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Hendrickse said that the delays had been minimal.

"From the reports we received, by 7:45 all our stations were opened."

On average, voters have been reporting a two-hour-long wait to vote. 

Hendrickse said that where voter management devices were offline, staff should revert to a hard copy of the voters’ roll to ensure the process is not delayed further.

"The VMD can also operate in offline mode and the information can still be captured. What happens is, when the VMD gets to a place where there’s connectivity, the system will upload."

He added that voters should also not be concerned if all three ballots were placed in the same box, as this in no way invalidated votes.

HOT SPOTS

The Electoral Commission in the Western Cape said that law enforcement was keeping a close watch on 48 hotspot areas identified in the metro and another outside. 

But they were keeping these locations close to their chests. 

Hendrickse said that no major incidents had been reported despite a shooting reported in Manenberg. 

"The SAPS deployed additional manpower to stabilise that particular area and the last report I received was that the situation out in Manenberg is in fact calm."

Hendrickse said that some protest action in Ocean View was also quickly brought under control. 

"The public order police were deployed to that particular area to monitor the situation out there. What we initially received as a report in Hessequa of a demonstration, wasn’t in fact a demonstration, those were just people congregating outside the voting station tent."