NEWCASTLE KZN: Incorrect ballot papers issued at voting station

A number of people had already cast their votes at a Newcastle voting station before it was discovered the incorrect ballot paper was issued to them. Opposition parties said they intend to lodge an objection against the local government election results in Ward 25 of Newcastle (the area includes the suburb of Fairleigh and a part of the Central Business District).

ActionSA’s mayoral candidate, Faizel Cassim said the party discovered this morning the ballot papers being used at the Fairleigh voting station were actually meant for Mtubatuba, which is situated in KwaZulu-Natal’s uMkhanyakude District, north of Richard’s Bay.

Cassim said that since smaller parties like ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance, for example, were only contesting a few municipalities, this placed them at a disadvantage as the parties did not appear on the ballot papers intended for Mtubatuba. However, they do appear on the ballot papers intended for Newcastle, where they are contesting the elections.

He added anyone who voted on the incorrect ballot papers before the error was discovered would have been unable to cast a vote in favour of the ActionSA candidate or the Patriotic Alliance candidate, for that ward. Individuals who are standing as independents in Newcastle would have also been affected by the error, as their names would not have appeared on the Mtubatuba ballot papers.

Imran Keeka of the Democratic Alliance said he became aware of the problem when he went to observe the voting process as a member of the provincial legislature. Keeka said he confirmed with the presiding officer at the voting station that the error had occurred and enquired about a possible solution.

I was told the solution would be for the votes made for a particular party member to still count towards that party’s candidate for the ward. However, it is true that independent candidates and parties such as ActionSA, which are not contesting in Mtubatuba, will be affected because their names would not have appeared on the incorrect ballot paper,” said Keeka. “When I found out what happened, I immediately called a caucus of the opposition parties and advised them that, once the count of the ballot papers are done, they should not sign off on the results, but should lodge an objection instead. Regardless of which party wins that ward, I still feel the outcome is going to be unfair. Why didn’t the IEC check the ballot papers before they were issued? This is a serious situation which could be escalated to the electoral court.”

Regional Manager for the IEC (Independent Electoral Commission), Nonhlanhla Mbonane said fortunately, the error with the ballot papers was discovered just an hour after the voting station had opened. According to her, the cover of the ballot papers said Newcastle, which is why the mistake wasn’t picked up right away.

Only when we were tearing off the ballot papers for the voters did we realise it was meant for Mtubatuba,” she said.

Mbonane believes the parties represented on the ballot papers for Newcastle and Mtubatuba are sufficiently similar that it won’t really make a difference in the outcome of the elections.

So, what is going to happen, is the voters that have voted already on the Mtubatuba ballot papers… will be counted towards the parties for which they voted, but they will be counted for the party’s candidate in Ward 25 and towards the election results in Ward 25,” she explained.  “Yes, there is an independent who is contesting in Ward 25, but fortunately on the Mtubatuba ballot paper, there is an independent contesting as well. The independent candidate in Ward 25 confirmed he had marked the ballot paper for the independent candidate on the Mtubatuba ballot paper, so when we get the Mtubatuba ballots from the ballot box, that vote will be allocated to the independent in Ward 25.”

Mbonane’s Newcastle team checked with IEC officials in Mtubatuba to see if they ended up with Newcastle ballot papers. However, it appears it was just one box of ballot papers that was sent to Newcastle with a misprint and the rest of the box was ‘quarantined’ (separated from the rest of the election material).

She stated the box containing the incorrect ballot papers in Ward 25 was sealed and the IEC then used the new ballot box to continue with the voting.

If parties object, we will deal with the objection based on what grounds they are objecting on. I cannot pre-empt their objections because voting stations have not yet closed, so we haven’t received any objections to deal with as yet, but as soon as voting stations close, we do receive objections that were submitted at the voting stations and we attend to them,” concluded Mbonane. “Nonetheless, the Electoral Act says the presiding officer needs to respond to an objection when it is placed at the voting station during voting, so those are addressed there and then, unless a party wants to appeal that decision, which we will then attend to.”

Contact us

WhatsApp: 082 874 5550

Email: Reveshni Douglas (Editor) at reveshni@caxton.co.za

Make sure you follow us for regular updates: