Free State IEC flags address discrepancies during special voting

The Electoral Commission (IEC) in Free State says one of the major setbacks for some voters on the first day of special votes is discrepancies in their residential addresses and voting ward allocations.

Provincial IEC Manager Itumeleng Liba says some voters were asked to provide their addresses before receiving ballot papers.

He says after their details were updated, some were found to be registered in different wards from the stations they had visited and were, therefore, issued with only one ballot paper instead of two.

“What we know is that, or at least what was reported, is that a voter would visit a station without an address. In other words, there would not be an address reflected against the voter’s name and (we) would request the voter to provide an address before they are given a ballot. And when we then upload the address, the voter would then be located in a ward other than where that voter is at that moment. And we then explain that you will get just one ballot because you are in a ward where you do not reside.”

Changes in municipal demarcations have also left some voters disappointed as they were unable to cast their votes on the first day of special votes in parts of the province.

Speaking from the Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Bloemfontein, Freedom Front Plus Deputy Provincial leader Tammy Breedt says they’ve raised this with the IEC after learning that affected voters addresses were no longer reflecting correctly on the voters’ roll.

Breedt says some people who applied for special votes could not be found on the special voters register.

“So, we’ve seen two quite big issues, and the first one is with split VDs. For example, where there is a boundary that used to not be there. So, for example, you are registered on that side of the road, and the voting station is on this side of the road, and now your address has disappeared from the voters’ roll, the IEC are looking into that. So, that’s one of the discrepancies, and then also one of the things that we have seen, and we are also escalating, is that people have applied for a special vote, but they do not reflect on the special vote register for today.”

-Report by Lebohang Motshweneng