Lowveld voting currently running smoothly
There were some network issues with scanners when the voting polls opened this morning, May 29, but the problem has since been resolved.
Despite some network issues with the Electoral Commision of South Africa’s (IEC) scanners, the voting commenced smoothly across the province.
However, Section 24 of the Electoral Commission seems to be causing confusion among some of the voters.
It states that a voter may vote outside the voting district where they were registered, but needs to notify the Electoral Commission before voting day during the period specified in the election timetable.
That period for this year’s elections was from March 15 to May 17. The bottom line is, voters will only be allowed to vote where they are registered and will not be allowed to vote at any station like previous years. To be able to do so, they would have had to notify the IEC in the period above.
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The Mpumalanga IEC’s spokesperson, Thanduxolo Chembeni, confirmed that all the stations opened at 07:00 for people to cast their votes, even though there were some network issues with the scanners.
This problem has been resolved and everything is under control. There is also high visibility of law enforcement across all the stations to ensure all transpires smoothly.
Currently, everything is going well at all the voting polls, with no incidents reported.
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In some areas, such as Hazyview and Bushbuckridge, a small number of people visited the voting stations.
Some residents said they would maybe vote later, while others claimed that they will not vote due to poor service delivery, them not having been able to get their ID books or cards, and the confusion surrounding Section 24.
In White River and Mbombela, there have been long lines of people since the stations’ opening. The voting stations will remain open until 21:00.
