Slightly more than 45% of registered voters in the Western Cape had cast their vote by 2.30pm on Wednesday, according to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
Western Cape provincial election officer Courtney Sampson, who was briefing the media at the IEC’s results centre in Cape Town after returning from the Langa informal settlement, said 1Â 017Â 065 or 45,72% of an estimated 2,2-million voters had cast their votes by this time.
Sampson said there had been numerous complaints from political parties contesting the elections.
He said most complaints had to do with “swearing at other parties” and the use of trucks and loudhailers telling people to vote.
Other issues concerned names not appearing in the voters’ roll and people who had no stickers in their identity books. These stickers provide proof of voter registration.
Samspon said the IEC was looking into a complaint from the Western Cape leader of the Democratic Alliance, Theuns Botha, that the New National Party was in contravention of the rules by using a loudhailer on a bus in Atlantis.
When asked about problems relating to slow voting, in areas such as Guguletu and Langa, Sampson said long queues had been forming in those areas.
“It is not a good sign that there are long queues. It shows that people want to vote,” he said.
Sampson explained that the long queues at one Langa voting station was due to people being confused about where they had to vote.
In the local government elections of December 2000, in the wake of a devastating fire that had razed large parts of the Joe Slovo informal settlement, a temporary voting station had been erected at Isimimela High School.
Sampson said many people who voted there simply returned there on Wednesday.
However, IEC officials intervened and redirected those people.
He said the presiding officers sometimes seemed ill-equipped to deal with large numbers of voters at one time.
“They are doing the basics right. But when dealing with large numbers they don’t have the solution,” he said.
Sampson said the IEC had spoken to the area managers in an attempt to resolve these matters.
The IEC was also dispatching additional staff to manage long queues.
Special Report: Elections 2004