DURBAN residents have flocked to their local voting stations to make their voices heard and cast their vote for the 2024 elections, however, some residents expressed their frustration over the wait time, saying the processing of people this year is disappointingly slow.

An Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) member, who wanted to remain anonymous, was working at Glenwood Preparatory School this morning and said the delay at the Glenwood Preparatory School voting station was caused by them not having enough scanners. “In my opinion, everything is going as smoothly as it can. There were a few issues today – the main issue being the scanners. We were meant to receive two scanners, but we only got one. Voters started showing up at 06:30, and there have been a lot of people here since the morning,” he said.

The scanners being used this year are called Voting Management Devices (VMD), introduced by the IEC to replace the old Zip-Zip barcode scanners.

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According to the IEC, the VMD is a game-changer for voter registration, allowing the Electoral Commission to capture voter information electronically and to locate voters in the correct voting district.

Local resident Chaene Moore said the line at the Glenwood Preparatory voting station is moving way too slowly. “We’ve heard down the line that there’s only one scanner, and we’ve been in the line for almost 30 minutes, and we haven’t even gotten in the building. We still have a long way to go, and it looks like we’ll be waiting here for ages. It was a lot quicker in the previous elections, and it was promoted that this would be a quick process, but it’s not.”

Meanwhile, at the Berea Primary School voting station, an IEC representative, who chose to stay anonymous, also reported that there were issues with the Voting Management Devices. “Everything is going well, in my opinion. People started arriving at 06:30, and we took them in from 07:00. We had an issue with a VMD, and we kept trying it for a while, so that did delay us, but now the device is fine, and the line is moving quicker.”

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At the Denis Hurley Centre, Raymond Perrier, the centre’s director, said he’s happy to see the diverse crowd outside their voting station but expressed the same sentiments about the slow pace at the local voting station “It’s going well but, unfortunately, very slowly. They’ve only got one machine, and there were some hiccups with the machine, but the presiding officer has informed me that they’re working on it.”

“We’ve been told there’s only one scanner – it’s ridiculous, we’ve been here for an hour and a half, and I have voted here before, and I was here for only 30 minutes tops before. It’s cold outside, and we were sitting there for ages – it’s moving way too slow,” said local resident Shamim Hannin, who voted at the Denis Hurley Centre.

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