Special voting under way in KZN amid ballot-box theft, rain and late starts - News24

Day one of special voting got under way in KwaZulu-Natal with a few incidents, the provincial Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said on Monday.

Briefing the media at the KwaZulu-Natal results operations centre at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, provincial electoral officer Ntombfuthi Masinga said the province’s 5 028 voting stations will open from 08:00 until 17:00 on Monday and Tuesday.

“Of all of those, only 40 did not have any special votes at all, so they did not open. In about 99% of the voting stations, there were special vote applications in the province.”

A total of 362 878 special votes were approved in the province. Of those, 58% were voting-station visits, and the remainder were home visits.

In the eThekwini district, a handful of voting stations did not open at 08:00 because the police who were meant to escort voting staff arrived late.

“We have one incident in Lamontville, where the landlord had issues in the morning. But because we have trained the SAPS that where we have a lease agreement in place that we signed with the landlord, that voting station has to open, and we managed to get the SAPS to open that voting station in Lamontville.”

Weather was a growing concern. Masinga flagged an 80% chance of rain in the Harry Gwala District Municipality area, where it has already started raining, and a 60% chance of rain is predicted across the province.

The IEC said it hoped the weather would not hamper operations.

Temporary infrastructure also took a hit from the conditions.

“Some of them could not be erected last night because of the weather conditions, and they had to be erected this morning, and that caused a slight delay in some of our voting stations,” Masinga said.

By 09:00, however, the facilities were ready for voting.

A few incidents were reported across the province.

Voting Stations Are Open! Are you ready to cast your vote today? Make sure you visit your voting station between 08:00 – 17:00 If you have applied for #specialvote home visit, make sure you are home between 08:00 – 17:00 Have your valid South African ID ready! pic.twitter.com/f3WaFAvgpV

“The one that we woke up to was in one voting station in Umdoni municipality, where one of our voting stations experienced theft overnight, because we do keep the bulk material in voting stations overnight. The only material that gets escorted by the SAPS is the sensitive and security materials.”

The material left at stations overnight includes ballot boxes and booths. They are considered non-security material.

The incident would not affect the IEC’s processes, Masinga said.

In a separate incident at Umzinto Town Hall, also in Umdoni Local Municipality, party agents demanded that the IEC divulge where it stored its materials.

“We made it clear that that exercise and our logistics plan are not for public consumption and that’s for our purposes only as the Electoral Commission. The members of the public have no interest,” Masinga said.

The matter was resolved after the SAPS became involved.

Masinga said the province had also been informed that its deputy presiding officer in Bergville was hit by a car on Monday morning on her way to the voting station.

“She is currently in hospital, and we are hopeful that she will make a speedy recovery.”

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