Cape Town – The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has refuted claims that a voting station in Wellington displayed racism after a video circulated on social media showing two separate lines for white and black voters.
IEC Western Cape spokesperson Courtney Sampson said there had been a major challenge at a few voting stations, with people voting at stations at which they were not registered.
“This resulted in some stations not having enough ballot papers and voters having to wait until extra ballot papers arrived.
“In Wellington, a group of students that were registered at a different voting district were voting in a district where they are not registered, where the video was captured.
“The presiding officer, for practical purposes, placed them in a separate line to process, as they need to complete a VEC4 form, as stipulated under Section 24(a) of the Electoral Act, before a ballot can be issued.
“The other line of voters were registered at that particular voting station, and therefore (it) would be more practical to vote separately.
“That the two queues visually represented a categorised demographic is coincidental.”
Sampson said the main objective was to ensure no voter was turned away. In instances where they were waiting for ballot papers to be
replenished, Sampson said voters
may have left out of frustration but
returned later in the day.
In Joburg there were reports of people being able to wipe the ink off their thumb and voting twice.
“This issue was raised in Johannesburg and it appears a few presiding officers used the wrong pen.
“We do not take anything for granted and will follow up on this,” said Sampson.
Meanwhile, the commission said it had received reports of an elderly voter who died at a voting station in Elandspoort, Tshwane, yesterday and expressed its condolences.
While inclement weather through parts of the Western Cape got the day off to a slow start in some parts, others saw South Africans braving the cold in long queues to cast their ballots.