Man accused of voting three times

A group of youth celebrates their vote in Eldorado Park. Picture: Timothy Bernard (0791175935) 07.05.2014

A group of youth celebrates their vote in Eldorado Park. Picture: Timothy Bernard (0791175935) 07.05.2014

Published May 8, 2014

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Pretoria - Indelible ink and ID book stamps didn’t stop a man from allegedly voting three times in Soshanguve.

“I have seen the ID. There are three stamps,” Tshwane councillor Tiyiselani Babane said late on Wednesday night.

Babane, a Cope councillor, went to the voting station at Kgotlelelang Primary School in Soshanguve after party agents complained about a man caught voting more than once.

Babane said party agents from all four parties at the station – Cope, ANC, DA and Economic Freedom Fighters – had all complained about the man to the Independent Electoral Commission, and charges were being laid with the police.

The man, who wasn’t linked to any particular party, apparently turned up several times in the voting queue until someone noticed he’d been there before – and then his ID book was checked for the stamp of the voting record.

 

The man apparently did not appear on the roll for that station but his thumb was marked with indelible ink.

Babane expressed astonishment at how anyone could have got past all the checks to prevent multiple voting. “How many like him came in and did the same thing?”

On Wednesday night, police said there was no record of an arrest.

Babane said police at the voting station had initially declined to arrest the man because there wasn’t an official complaint, but the man was now expected to be arrested and was held on Wednesday night at the polling site awaiting transport to a police station.

 

IEC officials were meeting on Wednesday night at the results operations centre and were not available for comment.

The Star

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