South Africa’s IEC launches investigation after ballot papers and official stamp stolen in KZN

Unused ballot papers and an official stamp have been stolen from a voting station in eThekwini, the IEC said on Wednesday.

Deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi said the staff at the voting station had been relieved of their duties and a case had been opened with police.

He said the stolen ballots could not be used without being detected, as every ballot had to be stamped on the back, and the stolen stamp could be told apart from the ones being used on election day.

“There are 20 voting stations in that ward,” Sheburi told the media on Wednesday afternoon.

“We have put in measures to ensure that should those ballots surface at any of those voting stations, we will be able to identify them, because it is a requirement that a ballot must be validated by a stamp at the back.

“And if the stamp that was stolen together with those ballots is used, it is distinguishable from the stamps that are used on election day because it was allocated only for use for special voting days.

“A case has been opened with the SAPS and our staff have been relieved of their duty for their dereliction at that voting station.”

It is the second theft of election material in KwaZulu-Natal this week, after empty ballot boxes and stationery were stolen from the Amahlongwa Community Hall in Umdoni during special voting on Monday.

Sheburi also said that more than 3.5m people had voted by 10am, three hours after voting stations opened.

“By 10am, 3.5m voters had already voted,” he said.

Gauteng, which has 6.6m people on its certified voters’ roll, led with 895,384 votes, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 623,380, the Western Cape with 461,264 and the Eastern Cape with 431,123.

Limpopo recorded 366,378 votes, Mpumalanga 252,859, North West 204,736, the Free State 195,537 and the Northern Cape 93,030.

That is about 12% of the 29.2 million registered voters, on top of the 1,425,942 special votes cast on Monday and Tuesday.

He said a few voting stations had opened late because of protests and bad weather.

“A few voting stations opened by nine due to localised protests and access challenges due to inclement weather,” he said.

“Those were in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and one in the Mpumalanga province.

“We confirm that by nine o’clock all stations were operating.”

He said the commission had added handheld barcode scanners to its voter management devices, which had helped speed up the processing of voters and keep queues moving.

“The commission is particularly encouraged by those voters who made their way to stations early in the morning to avoid the last hour rushes in the afternoon,” Mamabolo said.

He reminded presiding officers that voters were allowed to wear party colours to voting stations.

“A voter who comes to a voting station in a party regalia and only conducts one political activity, which is to mark a ballot and leave the voting station, is permitted to do so,” he said.

“However, political party agents as well as candidates may not wear party regalia in the boundaries of a voting station.”

Sheburi said voters in most municipalities would receive three ballots, a grey one for their ward councillor, a green one for a party on the local council and a yellow one for a party on the district council.

Voters in the eight metros receive two ballots, one for the ward and one for a party on the metro council.

He urged voters to make only one mark on each ballot, warning that additional marks could spoil it.

Each voting station also has universal ballot templates, developed with Blind SA, to allow visually impaired voters to mark their ballots on their own and in secret.