Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille has laid a complaint with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in Nelson Mandela Bay after she discovered several voters in a metro voting station were casting only one ballot.
“I went inside the Despatch town hall and while I was observing I noticed five voters with only one ballot paper,” Zille said in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday. “When I pointed this out to the IEC they got a terrible fright and said it shouldn’t be like this.”
She said voters had to walk past two IEC tables to get to voting booths.
“Why people weren’t stopped when they were walking past I don’t know. It was highly suspicious.”
Zille said the missing ballots were proportional representation ballots and could prove vital in determining the result in the metro, which she expects to be “neck-and-neck” with the African National Congress.
“We have to determine how widespread this was,” Zille said, appealing to voters in the metro to contact the party if they were only given one ballot paper.
One ballot paper is to vote for a political party, while the second ballot paper is to vote for a ward councillor.
‘Very close’
Meanwhile, the result of the local government election will be “very close” in Nelson Mandela Bay, Zille said as she visited polling stations in the townships around the metro on Wednesday.
“We know it will be very close, every vote is going to count,” Zille said at a voting station in Kwadwesi township.
“This is why I am here for the sixth time [during this local government election].”
Zille said that Nelson Mandela Bay deserves a better local government administration.
“I say to people you get the government you deserve,” she said. “And Port Elizabeth and Nelson Mandela Bay deserve better than it has.” – Sapa
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