Tshwane elections: New kids on the block Action SA gaining votes, but lagging behind EFF

Newly-formed political party Action SA was slowly gaining ground in Tshwane election results, taking fourth place behind the EFF.

On Wednesday afternoon, Action SA was standing at 8.67%, while the ANC took the lead from the DA as the counting of ballots continued to be completed.

The Tshwane election results board looked different from the morning, with the ANC ahead with 36.06%, followed by the DA at 34.7% and the EFF at 11.74%.

Nationally, 79% of votes had been counted. Action SA mayoral candidate for Tshwane Abel Tau said he was expecting more votes from his party.

He said their supporters faced challenges during the voting day, but despite these, “they had embraced the election process”.

“There were issues with voter management devices in Soshanguve and people were turned away and we saw vote rigging in Itereleng. There were a number of glitches reported by our party agents.

“On Tuesday night, there were ballot papers that were being recounted at Tshwane House in an attempt to resolve such issues.”

In solving these problems, Tau said they reported them to IEC regional managers, and in some of the cases, they received assistance.

He said most of the areas where problems were reported anticipated high votes.

Tau said they had a stronghold in areas such as Eersterust, Laudium, Itereleng, Atteridgeville and Centurion.

“We have been leading just behind the EFF and that should tell you that we are a serious force to be reckoned with and all of this is happening while we did not have an acronym catered for (in ballot papers). People had to literally look for us.”

He was hoping his party would be part of a governing coalition in the metro.

“If we are not in government our people must rest assured that we will lead from behind in the opposition benches.”

Tau said he believed that on the final day (Thursday) of results, they would be in a better position in the region.

“Most of the votes in areas we are strong in will flow in, and we are hoping to see a clearer picture and hope that we will be in the high two digits. We hope we will touch the 25-30% mark, as much of a toll order as it seems but we are hopeful that the results that are still trickling in would be sufficient.

“Action SA is officially not a small party, we might be new but we are here to make big waves.”

The Independent Electoral Commission said 6 000 registered voters were affected as a result of glitches with the voter management device systems.

During a press briefing on Monday, IEC senior electoral matters manager Granville Abrahams said on election day they found that there were 67 000 voters who registered, but were not uploaded on the system.

He said they tried to upload the voters and 35 000 of them cast their votes, leaving 32 000, Abrahams said of those, 6 000 were scanned at stations and were not able to vote as they did not appear on the system.

“To ensure that these voters do not miss out we sent out SMSes to the voters asking them to return to the stations to vote.”

He said the the problem with the voting system has been fixed.