Vote counting in Limpopo has finally been completed. This comes after earlier two municipalities in the Sekhukhune and one in Mopani regions were fingered as the culprits behind the delay of vote capturing in Limpopo.
The ANC received 73.4% of the vote, followed by the EFF with 13.99% and DA with 5.93%.
By midday, votes coming from Elias Motsoaledi and Fetakgomo local municipalities were not yet captured due to various reasons.
Some challenges here and there
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the province said it had envisaged to wrap up its counting by midday. However, it encountered challenges in some areas.
Addressing the media on Saturday morning, Nkaro Mateta, the IEC’s provincial chief electoral officer, gave an update. She said a presiding officer in the Elias Motsoaledi region overrode a voter management device. The officer allowed voters who were not registered at that poling station to cast their votes.
She said: “We have noted with concern that our officer acted in an illicit manner by overriding our system. And this has created a serious problem for the commission. We had to quickly do a consequence management to alleviate the situation.
“An investigation of results slips at Jafta Primary School voting station where the results were not balancing [is underway]. The total number of votes exceeded a pre-defined parameter. A recount of the ballots had to be done for that voting station and this delayed our progress.”
The municipality is the same area where a senior official was caught transporting ballot boxes containing special votes without a police escort.
Officer transported ballot boxes without police escort
Mateta said: “The area manager collected our boxes from secure a storage. When he approached the first station to drop the special vote boxes, community members were on alert. [They] realised that a person was moving around with ballot boxes without an escort. Community members became suspicious and raised alarms. They chased after the area manager and he panicked, stopped, dropped one of the boxes and disappeared. Fortunately, a police officer nearby confiscated the dropped box. That box was taken to the nearby police station.”
In Fetakgomo, a scanner is reportedly the major cause of delayed vote capturing. This forced the IEC to divert the counting to the provincial results operating center. The venue is at The Ranch, south of Polokwane.
Mateta said: “Three results slips have not been scanned, and four results slips have not been audited. There was a delay in handing over to the auditors and a scanner challenge in the office. The scanning and auditing of these results slips will be completed before sunset. This is because the office and independent auditors are currently working on them.
Mateta said they have notified the relevant people within the IEC about what happened.
Ruling party retains power in the province
“All these incidents have taken us by surprise. There is no way that ballot boxes can be transported without being escorted by police or traffic officials. After receiving the news, we went to inspect whether the box had been tampered with.
“We invited political parties to the police station before we could inspect the ballot box. The box was found to be sealed. It was then taken to the relevant police station. The police tracked down the area manager and ballot boxes were escorted to the affected voting station,” Mateta said.
Meanwhile, the ANC in Limpopo has comprehensively achieved a remarkable victory to cling on to its power.
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