Questions raised around voter educate on Section 24(A)

Political Analyst Sandile Swana has questioned whether the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and political parties did enough to educate voters on Section 24(A) of the Electoral Amendment Act.

It allows voters to cast their ballot away from the voting stations where they are registered.

This as many voters across the country were turned away without voting because they did not apply.

Swana says, “You also have to ask many other questions, whether when we claim to be educating South Africans, we are truly educating South Africans. For instance when you are educating people in Sandton versus educating farm workers who live in some remote farm somewhere, your methods and so on and so forth must be different.”

“Those will be questions of whether the ruling elites in SA are including the lower classes and the indigenous population,” adds Swana.

Power cuts at voting stations

Meanwhile, the IEC says provisions have been made so that voters can complete casting their ballots at voting stations that have experienced power cuts.

Polling stations in South Africa’s seventh democratic elections closed at 9pm.

The areas that have been affected are in the Thaba Tsoana area in Qwa Qwa, Free State, Jukulyn in Pretoria, Gauteng as well as places like Ugu District Municipality and Umzumbe in KwaZulu-Natal.

IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo says they were given the assurance by Eskom that there would be no load shedding on voting day.

“In regards to the power cuts in in Jukulyn, all we can indicate is that the commission has no less than 34 000 lights. Because we indicated that there would be situations such as those and we should be in a position to provide lights.”

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