Church leaders in KwaZulu-Natal are calling on authorities to give a fitting sentence to those who will be found guilty of electoral fraud.
At least 20 people have been arrested for allegedly attempting to vote more than once.
17 of those nabbed are from KwaZulu-Natal, one of them is from Gauteng and two others hail from Mpumalanga.
The church leaders held a media briefing in St. Joseph in Durban on Friday. They expressed disappointment at the attempts by some voters to bring the Wednesday general polls into disrepute.
The clerics urged investigators to speed up the process so that the matter could be laid to rest.
Their call comes amid an audit to gauge the scale and impact of alleged multiple voting on the country’s provincial and national elections results.
At least 35 political parties want a re-run of the polls due to the alleged double voting.
Some are alleging that results of their party votes at voting districts where their supporters voted are not appearing on the leader-board.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the DA have dismissed the vote rigging claims – with the red berets admitting that the IEC should look into the outcry over its ink which was said to have been easily washable – despite specifics that it should last for days.
DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, says the party will closely monitor the outcome of the IEC’s audit, set to be done once vote counting is complete.
Youth voter turnout concerns
The South African Development Community (SADC) Election Observer Mission is urging the country to investigate reasons behind a low registration and vote turnout among the youth.
Head of the Mission Zambian Foreign Minister, Joseph Malanji, was addressinge the media at the time in Pretoria.
Out of 26.7 million registered voters, 5.7 million of them were below the age of 30.
Malanji says the country’s think tanks should not let this go unchecked. “This requires special attention. The SEOM proposes the IEC, Human Science Research Council (SAHRC) are urged to assess the possible causes of voter apathy among young South Africans with a view of designing and implementing voter and civic education programmes to address this apathy .”
