Far South special voters say IEC didn't come
Deputy Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams casting her vote duting Local Municipal Elections at Idutywa Town Hall in Idutywa, Eastern Cape. South Africa. 3/08/2016. Siyabulela Duda Deputy Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams casting her vote duting Local Municipal Elections at Idutywa Town Hall in Idutywa, Eastern Cape. South Africa. 3/08/2016. Siyabulela Duda
Cape Town - The DA has lodged a complaint with the IEC after a number of people who registered for special votes in the Far South Peninsula were not visited by IEC officials on Tuesday.
Councillor Felicity Purchase said she was inundated with complaints from people who had received SMSes confirming they were registered but no one arrived to take their votes.
The areas affected were Fish Hoek, Noordhoek and Simon's Town as far as she was aware but there could have been other suburbs as well that they hadn't heard about.
“Most of the people were in old age homes or others were bedridden at home. We're not sure what happened but have lodged a formal complaint.”
Trevor Davids, IEC spokesman, said they were looking into the matter.
He said more than 500 applications for special votes had been rejected because they had fallen outside the voting district
Davids said they were trying to get a sample of ID numbers from those affected to see if they fell into that category.
He said some voters may have been sent an SMS during the initial capturing process but later, during quality assessment, may have been rejected.
helen.bamford@inl.co.za
Elections Bureau