Disabled, sick get help
The IEC yesterday administered an additional 8 000 special votes to people with ill health, the disabled, and the heavily pregnant and members of the SANDF and police force.
This brought the number of special votes administered in KZN over the past two days to more than 17 000. The deadline for new applications for special votes had been extended to Monday to allow voters in rural areas another chance to file applications.
The casting of special votes started on Monday with more than 9 000 people casting their votes. Provincial Electoral Officer Mawethu Mosery said the past two days had been very quiet and no acts of intimidation had been reported.
He said the commission could not rule out any possibility of last-minute intimidation which could be expected today as voters take to different polling stations across the province to cast their votes.
Meanwhile the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal said yesterday it had lodged complaints with the commission after alleged acts of vote manipulation were reported in Ndwedwe and Mtubatuba.
Senzo Mchunu, the ANC provincial secretary, said the party had laid a complaint against one electoral presiding officer in Mtubatuba who refused to stamp the ballot paper from an SANDF member who cast a special vote.
In another incident, the ANC alleges that a presiding officer in Ndwedwe was allegedly seen opening an envelope containing special votes which had been cast. The envelopes are only supposed to be opened once the counting begins at voting stations.
Counting is expected to start at all polling stations as soon as voting is completed. Mosery said the results slips from each individual polling station would, for the first time, be scanned and made available on the IEC’s website.
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22 Avril 2009 à 11:09 dans
- zsandf (anglais)
