The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) on Tuesday condemned violent activities targeted at the ongoing municipal elections.
“Two tents were burnt in an overnight apparent arson attack by disgruntled residents in Freedom Park, Ekurhuleni. These tents have been replaced today and extra security arranged,†IEC chief electoral officer Mosotho Moepya told a media briefing at the national results operations centre in Pretoria.
“The Electoral Commission condemns any disruption of the election and is working closely with the South African Police Service to protect the voting process and investigate criminal acts and other violations of the electoral code of conduct.â€
Moepya was updating reporters on the second day of the two days of special voting, before official voting day on Wednesday.
“In voting stations where procedures were not followed, the presiding officers and the deputy presiding officers have been issued with warnings. In two cases where the behaviour of the presiding officer and the deputy presiding officer was believed to be more serious breaches – including allowing voters who had not been granted special votes to vote and failing to secure ballot boxes – they have been summarily dismissed,†said Moepya.
Moepya, however, cautioned that Monday’s statements made on “fake news websites†claiming that people had been arrested with large quantities of ballot papers marked for a specific party were a hoax.
“Despite the photograph of the marked ballots clearly being a national ballot paper for 2014 national and provincial elections, this destructive story spread virally and was also picked up by some media organisations,†said Moepya.
By Tuesday afternoon, the IEC said it was on track to complete the special voting through home visits and at voting stations by 5pm.
“Despite a record number of special vote applications, election officials reported that between 50 and 70 percent of home visits had been completed yesterday with the remaining visits underway from early today (Tuesday),†said Moepya.
