Bad weather no match for determined voters
On Election Day almost all our 4792 voting stations were opened on time except for a few voting stations who experienced minor technical glitches. These were swiftly attended to and those voting stations were opened without further delays.
On Election Day almost all our 4792 voting stations were opened on time except for a few voting stations who experienced minor technical glitches. These were swiftly attended to and those voting stations were opened without further delays.
Voting day proceeded smoothly through the day and the IEC did not experience shortages of material especially with regards to ballot papers.
They received a report that a voter in Ingwe Municipality had collapsed inside the voting station and was later declared dead. This was said to be a regrettable incident by the commission.
“As a Commission we would like to pass our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased and that they may be comforted during their time of grief,” officials said.
Due to unfavourable conditions, some temporary voting stations in form of tents were blown away by wind. Repairs were done to those that could be repaired. Where repairs could not be done, voting station operations were moved to nearby buildings such as local spaza shops, police stations and churches.
Most of the voting stations were closed on time. A few voting stations did experience long queues and had to be closed later once all voters that were in the queue by closure at 19:00pm were attended to. The last voting station, which is in Danhausser Municipality, was closed at 22:45pm.
Counting procedures commenced immediately after closure of each voting station.
The IEC was expecting 13 510 results from our voting stations and 10 174 results have been capture on to their system by Thursday, August 4. Of the 10 174 captured, 9 067 had already been audited which puts them at 61.3% of capturing of the results in KwaZuluNatal.
Only six municipalities had recorded a 100% capturing and auditing of the results, these were Umngeni, Mooi Mpofana, Richmond, Endumeni, Umvoti and Maphumulo.
In the municipality of eThekwini Metro, which is the biggest municipality in the province, they were sitting at 17% of capturing results. This was attributed to voter turnout which meant long hours of counting and also distances travelled during the collection of slips.
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