Hundreds of marked ballot papers have been discovered outside an Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) results centre in the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan municipality as counting draws to a close in the metro, provoking outrage from opposition parties and sparking an official investigation. But the IEC said the election results from the metro remain credible.
“It’s disgusting. It’s just disgusting. Win an election fair and square, don’t do it through cheating. You don’t undermine our democracy like this,” said a Congress of the People official inside the tent where the ballot boxes were found.
The ballots marked with votes for all political parties were found discarded along with result slips in a tent behind the ETC conference centre in Zwide, where the IEC set up its operations. It was found along with special votes, spoiled and unmarked ballots, marking pens and branded IEC signage.
The election material was discovered by former Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Ncebo Faku, who alerted journalists in the venue. The area was immediately cordoned off and the police’s detective unit called onto the scene, but not before political parties inspected the discarded votes.
Party agents then questioned IEC officials about the credibility of the Nelson Mandela Bay election and whether the votes were accurately captured onto the system.
“I don’t think there’s any question about the results. Any ballot that is here has been counted. What I can see is ballots that fell out of the box and the people who were working here left them lying on the ground,” regional supervisor for the IEC, Crosby Bacela, said while addressing the parties outside the tent.
He explained that the ballots are usually transported to the IEC’s storage once the result slips have been signed off by presiding officers and party agents at individual voting stations.
“The area managers are the people who received these boxes here and put them inside the tent. The truck will take the boxes from here to our warehouse in (the city),” Bacela said.
But he admitted that the discovery could compromise the IEC’s ability to conduct a legitimate recount of the votes if the outcome of the poll is disputed and a political party calls for it. He also admitted the IEC had failed to properly preserve the ballots after voting was completed.
While the ANC alerted its lawyers to the situation and referred questions to electoral officials, the Democratic Alliance said the incident demonstrates IEC inefficiency.
“The IEC are irresponsible, reckless. What was Faku doing in the tent? This is typical of the ANC. Once they start losing, they blame somebody else,” said the city’s DA mayoral candidate, Athol Trollip.