Cape Town - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Western Cape says it is has resolved an issue at a Philippi voting station raised by Agang SA.
The party shared a photo on Twitter earlier on Wednesday showing leader Mamphele Ramphela confronting an official with an armload of ballots.
“Why are these ballot papers not in a sealed box?” wrote @AgangSA, posting the photo several times.
They added: “Who is facilitating this corruption?”
But IEC Western Cape head Courtney Sampson said the incident was simply an official moving the ballot papers from substation to another that had run short.
In some areas where the IEC expected particularly high voter turnout, a voting station is divided into several substations to speed up the process. The substations involved both fell within the same voting station in Philippi.
“It's important for us to follow up on these issues, but we are satisfied with the response,” said Sampson.
Other issues involved voters in party T-shirts being turned away. Sampson said a bulk SMS was sent out to remind IEC officials that while party agents could not wear their colours, voters could.
He said on the whole, “things are going fairly well out there”, apart from citizens voting “willy nilly where they want to” instead of the voting station where they registered.
“When that happens, the system is challenged,” said Sampson. “But I think it's a positive thing that people really want to vote. That's the bottom line for us.”
Independent Newspapers