No major election day hiccoughs

Voting stations, including one at the Music Academy of Gauteng opening late and scanner machines at Belvedere School not working properly, are some of the inconveniences reported to the City Times.

At Kathstan College, presiding officer Alfred Tlaka said the scanner showed an error message which led to ID documents being checked manually.

The East Rand Speedboat Club station also did not have any ID book scanners and had to follow manual procedure.

But presiding officer Jabu Mkwanazi said everything went well at this station.

“We have had no problems; it’s been an organised day, with the queue flowing smoothly,” he said.

The Crystal Park Primary School voting station experienced delays in receiving the national ballot papers and had to exchange half with the Crystal Park Clinic, which had provincial ballot papers.

But presiding officer Joyce Nxele said the voting procedure at this station went very well and, by 11.48am, they already had 2 429 voters who had come through.

In Mackenzie Park, voting went smoothly, except for a high number of people who were registered outside Gauteng and had to fill in forms before they could be allowed to vote.

At Willowmore High School, presiding officer Richard Maluleka said they had a lot of voters and everything went smoothly.

Presiding officer at the Benoni City Hall voting station, Lydia Nxele, said all went well and no problems or long queues were experienced.

Residents of Benoni also shared their own impressions about the voting process at different stations.

Michael Marshall, who was in a queue at the John Barrable Hall for an hour and a half, said he was frustrated with the long queues at that venue.

He said the elderly were allowed to skip the queue, which delayed the voting process for everyone else.

Marshall agreed that the elderly should skip the queue, but said the organisation of it was poor.

He suggested a separate entrance for the elderly.

Jared Degambur, who voted at the East Rand Speedboat Club, said the queue was moving quickly and he had waited for only 25 minutes.

At Kathstan College, Karen Chapman said the dysfunctional scanner was unacceptable.

“I don’t believe that this would happen on a day like this,” she added.

Doreen Richardson was pleased that the older folk were being taken through in batches to vote.

“It’s going well; it’s a beautiful sunny day and the voting is well-organised,” she said.

Celesté Kruger suggested there should be hotdog stands at the next elections.

Hannes van Zyl said thought it was completely disorganised.

“The queue is not moving and they should have had a separate line for pensioners and children, because it is holding up the line,” he commented.

Rita Burger said: “We hope things work out well. I have hope for the future.”

Jenna Stewart said the voting station at Rynfield Dam moved along nicely.

Many other voters commented on the Benoni City Times Facebook page in response to a question asking whether they would return home without voting if confronted with long queues.

“As frustrating as it is, I really hope no one goes home without casting their votes,” said Vickie Whitehead.

“You are enriched with the right to choose who rules this country … don’t waste that right!”

Beth McDonald said, “Not a sausage!”

“I can’t complain about the running of this country and e-tolls then not vote — I’ll stand all day.”

Hayley Walker commented: “No, we can’t afford to be complacent, we have a whole day to vote.”

Cagney van der Riet said, “I don’t care if it takes the entire day, I am casting my vote.

•  The ANC won the national elections and secured 249 seats in the National Assembly, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 89 seats.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) came third, securing 25 seats.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) secured 10 and its breakaway party, the National Freedom Party (NFP), received six.

The United Democratic Movement (UDM) and the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) both secured four seats, with the Congress of the People (Cope), AIC and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) each securing three seats.

Agang SA secured two seats and the African People’s Convention (APC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) each received one seat.