By Johnathan Paoli
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has said that the lengthy ballot papers used in metropolitan municipalities are slowing the counting and capturing of votes following Wednesday’s local government elections, although the commission has reported progress in the verification of results.
“The reality of the situation is that in all the metros, the ballots were quite long. The practical implication of that is that it takes longer to count. It will similarly take longer to capture. So, in respect of all the eight metros, the results capturing process will not be as expeditious as we may want, merely because of the sheer size of the ballot papers,” said IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo at a media briefing on Thursday.
His comments come as the IEC continues counting and verifying votes across the country, with eThekwini among the municipalities taking longer to complete the process because of the length of its ballot papers.
Despite the delays, Mamabolo said the commission had made progress, with 18 municipalities having concluded their results-capturing processes by 9am on Thursday.
He said this represented an improvement compared with the 2021 Local Government Elections, when only seven municipalities had completed the process at the same time.
“The improved rate of capturing is in spite of the increased length of ballot papers and the high number of contestants, as well as an expected greater voter participation,” he said.
Providing an update on the national counting process, Mamabolo said the commission expected to receive 66,073 results slips from local municipalities, metropolitan municipalities and district councils across approximately 23,000 voting stations.
By 9am, 23,444 results slips, representing 35.5% of the expected total, had been scanned into the results system, while 22,983, or 34.8%, had been captured.
A further 16,791 results slips, representing 25% of the expected total, had already undergone independent auditing.
Mamabolo explained that the counting process takes place at the voting station where the ballots were cast, with results recorded in duplicate in the presence of party agents and accredited observers.
One copy is transported in a tamper-evident envelope to an IEC capturing site, while the other remains at the voting station as a public record of the provisional result.
The commission uses double-blind capturing, scanning and independent auditing of the entire population of results slips as part of its quality assurance measures.
An automated system is also used to identify possible anomalies, including excessive voter turnout and inconsistencies in party votes across different ballot types at the same voting station.
The IEC has also addressed concerns about party agents who refuse to countersign results slips.
Mamabolo said the absence of a party agent’s signature did not invalidate the document, provided it had been signed by the presiding officer.
“When party agents don’t countersign the results slip, it doesn’t invalidate that results slip. That results slip remains official as signed by the presiding officer,” he said.
The IEC urged political parties and their supporters to exercise patience as the counting and verification processes continue.
The commission warned against circulating unverified election results, particularly claims that particular parties had already won wards before the official results were declared.
The IEC is expected to officially announce the results by the end of the weekend.
INSIDE METROS
