The Independent Electoral Commission is expecting only 40% of the voter turnout, a lower percentage to the 2006 local government elections turnout of 46%.
IEC chief electoral officer, Advocate Pansy Tlakula, told the media on Wednesday night that the commission was targeting 40% of the 23,6-million registered voters.
This was a clear indication that even the IEC was not confident about the voter turnout improving, despite political parties creating much hype about the polls.
In one of the wards in Mohlakeng, Randfontein on Johannesburg’s West Rand, only seven people bothered to cast their vote, four for the ANC and three for the Democratic Alliance. The IEC said only nine people were registered at the voting station.
Although the voting went well in most parts of the country, the IEC announced that two voters died of natural causes while waiting to vote. One of the voters was in Tafelsig, a highly contested ward in Cape Town, which recently saw fierce protests.
Seven officials were dismissed by the IEC because they were found to have stickers of a political party on their T-shirts. The IEC did not, however, reveal which party was represented by the official, of which six were in the Limpopo and one in the Free State.
Among the problems encountered on election day were inadequate ballot papers and malfunctioning scanners.
Tlakula said enough ballot papers were printed, but not delivered to voting stations. “We made provision for a 100% voter turnout. What might have happened is poor distribution. The ballot papers were maybe still at the warehouse”.
The scanners that malfunctioned were immediately withdrawn.
Tlakula told reporters at the problems experienced by the IEC were “very few”.
“You can’t even quantify them, it was much less than 1%,” she said.
Voting was still underway in some voting stations in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Limpopo, despite the closure of stations around the country. Everyone who was already at the voting station by the 7pm cut-off tine would get an opportunity to cast their vote, Tlakula said.
Western Cape results
The drafty community hall, transformed into the Independent Electoral Commission’s Western Cape regional results centre for the local government election, saw heightened activity late on Wednesday night as the first results begun to trickle.
Initial results showed that the DA had won the municipalities of Theewaterskloof, the first to be announced in the province. While in the City of Cape Town, information for one voting district in Strand, was available, revealing a win for the DA.
Mayoral candidate Patricia De Lille, popped in at 11pm as vote counting across the province accelerated.
She thanked voters saying, ‘Your vote may have made the difference in Cape Town.” She said the day’s voting procedures was a sign that democracy in South Africa was maturing.
ANC mayoral candidate Tony Ehrenreich, who appeared to have left the IEC regional results centre after a tough campaign schedule, indicated that the party would pursue a coalition government with a partner ready to promote a pro-poor agenda.
While results were gathering momentum by the early hours of the morning, it remains to be seen if such a coalition will be on the cards.
The IEC said it still expected that the count would be complete by the end of the week.