South Africa’s third local government election since the advent of democracy in 1994 took place in a low key and peaceful manner on Wednesday.
”The voting process has proceeded smoothly throughout the country,” the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said in a brief statement.
The voting to elect about 45 000 councillors in 283 municipalities got under way at 7am. All stations were open by 11am and most closed at 7pm.
IEC deputy chief electoral officer Norman du Plessis said some stations, especially in the North West and Bloemfontein, had remained open after the deadline.
He said everyone who had joined the queue before 7pm would be able to vote. The IEC could allow people to vote until midnight.
Problems
The IEC said a number of instances occurred where an incorrect ward ballot paper was issued to voters. ”This occurred without the presiding officer, party agents or voters realising the mistake.
”It was ruled that the ballot boxes with the affected ballots be sealed immediately and new ballot boxes be used for correct ballots that were cast thereafter,” the IEC statement read.
The commission was assessing the situation and consulting political parties.
Du Plessis told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that preliminary results were expected to start trickling in at about midnight.
He said only once 10% to 15% of the result was known, would the IEC be able to say how political parties did and what the turnout was for the election.
Du Plessis said the IEC had used fewer 4x4s and helicopters it had anticipated due to adverse weather. ”It was easier than what we had anticipated.”
President Thabo Mbeki was the first voter to cast his ballot at the Colbyn voting station in Pretoria.
Khutsong
There was a brief flare-up of violence in Khutsong, where residents have been rioting against being rezoned from Gauteng into the North West province. At one point during the day, the police fired rubber bullets and used a water cannon to extinguish a fire set by protesters.
Voting stations in the area were mostly deserted. Only 100 voters had cast their ballots in the town by noon. Mbeki said that Khutsong voters made up only a fraction of 1% of the country’s 21-million voters.
”I understand why you ask about them, but let’s not concentrate only on them,” he said during a visit to the IEC operations centre in Pretoria.
Mbeki had been told by the IEC that, with voting under way in all 19 000 voting stations, it was ”all systems go”.
”There is peace everywhere in the country. People are voting, even in areas where problems were expected,” he said.
Ballot papers had to be flown in by helicopter to areas where heavy rains threatened to wash out the voting. Putfontein on the East Rand, Mabopane north of Pretoria, and parts of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape were affected by flooding, said the IEC.
In the Western Cape, stations were stocked with enough lanterns and candles to make sure everybody could see where they were putting their crosses in the event of a power failure. The province has been beset with blackouts resulting from technical problems at the Koeberg nuclear facility.
Mandela
In Johannesburg’s Houghton, the cameras rolled as Nelson Mandela, the country’s first democratically elected president, arrived to vote. ”Even if I go to my grave I will wake up and come and vote,” Mandela said.
Mandela just missed South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni, who waited patiently for his turn to vote. ”It is my responsibility to vote,” said Mboweni as he left to spend the rest of the public holiday reading the newspapers.
There were some mishaps during the day — such as tents blowing over in Soweto — but even in difficult areas like flood-stricken Mpumalanga, voting went ahead.
Residents queued to vote in Matatiele, where residents are disputing its incorporation into the Eastern Cape from KwaZulu-Natal.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the Inkatha Freedom Party claimed IEC presiding officers were mistreating party agents at various voting stations in Durban.
At Novunywa, near Pietermaritzburg, the ANC claimed more than 40 IFP supporters were blocking a voting station. At Dobsonville, on the West Rand, some voters were confused because they were not on the voters’ roll.
Prince
In Beaufort West in the Western Cape, the town’s former mayor, Truman Prince, was on the comeback trail. Prince, wearing his trademark cowboy hat and sunglasses, was carried shoulder-high by supporters of the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (Icosa) when he cast his vote at the Hospitaalheuwel Sport Centre.
”Icosa will be the ruling party,” he predicted of the contest for seven wards, with 18 900 registered voters.
Prince was exposed on a television programme earlier this year for his apparent involvement with under-aged girls believed to have been prostitutes. He was expelled from the ANC in January.
Residents of the separatist Afrikaner community of Orania in the Northern Cape voted enthusiastically throughout Wednesday, said an Orania Movement spokesperson.
The conservative Afrikaner community, which supports the Freedom Front Plus, was voting only for proportional representation in the district municipality. — Sapa