Johannesburg - Political parties have urged voters to vote for them, promising to prioritise service delivery.
IEC chief executive Sy Mamabolo said on Wednesday that the electoral body was happy with the manner in which the by-elections process was unfolding.
He said there was a steady flow of voters at voting stations, which would close at 9pm.
"We want to urge those who have not already gone to stations to do so. This is an important opportunity for people to elect their political leadership and in so doing, influence the direction of community development within their wards,“ added Mamabolo.
He said the IEC on Tuesday had special votes and everything went well.
"We hope that our logistics will hold as they did yesterday, and we are happy with the compliance rate with respect to Covid-19 measures that have been implemented at voting stations. For now, its a final push to get everybody to the voting station," said Mamabolo.
According to the IEC, no incidents have been reported so far.
The electoral body said it was also happy because party agents were playing their role and IEC staff members were co-operating well with the voters, as well as the security personnel.
"The level of service delivery does affect the rate of participation and it’s always the wish of the IEC that those who are responsible for the delivery of services do so with a view to maintaining a reasonably high level of participation in the elections broadly, in the by-elections as well.
“Participation in the electoral process is important because it says we do not leave the political destiny of our communities in a wards to a few, but the political destiny of the community is vested in all of us," he said.
Mamabolo highlighted that participating in the by-elections “gives practical expression to the ideal of taking political direction of communities in their own hands”.
"Later on in the year, we will have a general elections where we elect our councils, again that will demand of us to stand up and participate, register our choices and by so doing, determine the direction in which the country should be going," said Mamabolo.
In the meantime, the IEC says it hopes the start of Phase 2 of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out will instil confidence in the public to go out in their numbers to vote.
"We do hope that now that the public roll-out has begun, it will give people confidence to be safe within communities, therefore encouraging people to go to the voting stations. We don't anticipate any clashes, we can only anticipate a positive impact," said Mamabolo.
IOL