Political analyst Sandile Swana has raised concerns about whether the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and political parties adequately educated voters about Section 24(A) of the Electoral Amendment Act. This section enables voters to cast their ballots at locations other than the voting stations where they are registered.
Many voters across the country were turned away without voting because they did not apply. Swana says, “We also have to ask many other questions, such as whether we are truly educating South Africans when we claim to be doing so. For example, when you are educating people in Sandton versus educating farm workers who live in some remote farm somewhere, your methods and approach must be different.”
“Those will be questions of whether the ruling elites in SA are including the lower classes and the indigenous population,” adds Swana.
Power cuts at voting stations
Meanwhile, the IEC has made provisions for voters to complete casting their ballots at voting stations that have experienced power cuts. Polling stations in South Africa’s seventh democratic election closed at 9 pm.
The areas that have been affected are the Thaba Tsoana area in Qwa Qwa, Free State, Jukulyn in Pretoria, Gauteng, as well as places like Ugu District Municipality and Umzumbe in KwaZulu-Natal.
IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo says they were given the assurance by Eskom that there would be no load shedding on voting day.
“In regards to the power cuts in Jukulyn, all we can indicate is that the commission has no less than 34,000 lights. We indicated that there would be situations such as those and we should be in a position to provide lights.”
