‘We had a bit of a glitch’: IEC says stations still operational, even past 9pm

BLOEMFONTEIN, MAHIKENG AND TSHWANE - The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in the Free State says in spite of technical glitches, voting has been satisfactory. 
 
Some voting stations in the province have had to rely on the manual system to cast votes due to internet issues. 
 
On Wednesday, Eyewitness News visited stations in Bloemfontein, Welkom and Botshabelo. 
  
IEC officials had to contact their main centres just to confirm the information of voters.
 
Spokesperson Mmabatho Mathabo said while they prepared to close, voters still had a chance as declared in the main IEC briefing earlier.
 
“We had a bit of a glitch when it [came] to system error[s]… our voter management device was offline, but we had to restart our machine. We have over 200,000 voters that have managed to make to participate in the Free State. We are anticipating that by 9 o’clock to pass 9 we will still be operating our station.”
 
She said at around 7pm on Wednesday evening, only a quarter of a million people had voted out of the over one million registered to vote in the province. 

NORTH WEST GLITCHES

In Mahikeng in the North West, voters who are still in queues say they are determined to cast their votes on Wednesday night.

And while it was a relatively incident-free day in Mahikeng, there were some reported glitches.

Earlier at the Marekwa Primary School voting station, there were some network issues which resulted in long delays and people turning back.

There were also people like Phenyo Moshoeshoe who could not get time off from work.

“Because I was working then I came late... I was here during the day and there was a lot of people, so I decided to go back to work and come in the afternoon.”

Police have started cordoning off the voting station to ensure there are no disruptions when the IEC officials begin counting.

PYJAMAS IN PRETORIA

Queues remain long at some voting stations in Tshwane, an hour after the 9 o’clock cutofF time for voters to arrive and cast their ballots.
 
Throughout the day, dozens of the capital’s residents who spoke to Eyewitness News expressed dissatisfaction with service delivery in the metro.
 
Earlier, parts of the city were left in the dark and others left to contend with dry taps, which the city ruled off as “day to day” service interruptions.
 
But water scarcity and quality, power cuts and waste collection disruptions unleashed a group of pyjama-clad voters ready for change.
 
Although voting stations seized their absorption of new voters an hour ago, and vote counting imminent, those sporting their pyjama pants and gowns are not deterred. 
 
In a media briefing earlier, the IEC said it expected results to start trickling in at 11pm.