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Al Jama-ah raises objections to processes they believe may disenfranchise registered voters  

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Political party Al Jama-ah says it has submitted objections to the Electoral Commission as some of their supporters’ names do not appear on the voters roll. It says these potential voters were registered through a paper-based system in the Madibeng Local Municipality in Brits in the North West.  

Since its establishment in 2007, the Al Jama-ah party has grown to include 10 councillors in municipalities across Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape. 

It also has one seat in parliament. 

The party has now raised objections to processes they believe may disenfranchise registered voters.  

Spokesperson Shameemah Salie says, “Many voters, who took the time out to go and register to vote in the presence of stakeholders and party agents, their names were not electronically captured. Their names were written down, resulting in a situation where those names, up until today, is not captured. In an area such as Madibeng, a compliant has already been lodged by Al Jama-ah for rectification of this particular aspect of voters names not being registered. Sadly, the situation is the failure to capture the names of these voters will ultimately result in an unfair practice, as well as concerns that this is the tactics of opposition parties.”

Provincial Electoral Officer for the North West Dr Tumelontle Thiba says alternative measures had to be used to ensure registrations continue despite technical glitches and aggrieved parties can raise their objections. 

“There was no way we could not resort to registrations (sic). That’s because we did not want to keep the voters waiting in the queue for a long time. However, the party has a right to object to the commission whether the voters who are not supposed to be on the voters roll, who were supposed to be on the voters roll and are not there (sic). So they do have recourse there.”

Furthermore, the IEC says while two voting stations in the North West did not open for registration and six others opened way after 8AM, over 30 000 new voters have registered to be on the roll. 

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