All systems go for the elections: IEC in Eastern Cape

The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in the Eastern Cape says it is all systems go ahead of the local government elections on Monday. The province has 4 809 voting stations.

The IEC added that it has trained over 30 000 personnel to assist in managing elections effectively. This as it launched its Results Operation Centre at the East London ICC in the Eastern Cape.

IEC’s provincial Electoral Officer Khayakazi Magudumane says, “As a province we are ready, the very first day of special vote is tomorrow and Sunday and as a province, we are having the highest number of special votes. We have about 131 home visits and about 83 000 home visits and we are supposed to visit all those voters before the end of business on Sunday. We are ready, we have trained staff, we have teams that will be going to these homes, whether it rains or not we have to do it,” says Magudumane

Magudumane has also urged voters to stay put this coming weekend, as IEC officials are only going to visit homes once for special votes.

“We are appealing to all voters to avail themselves because at times we visit these homes and we do not find people in them and I also want to caution people that if we do not find you at home, we will not be able to do a revisit, we visit once and we leave the home. We did a by-election in November and that election was actually assisting us in terms of how are we going to make sure that there is an election and an election is not a super spreader so we have procured enough gear to make sure that our staff has enough PPEs especially those that visit homes,” Magudumane added.

Earlier today, the Chief Electoral Officer of the IEC Sy Mamabolo spoke about the Commission’s readiness to hold elections on Monday around the country.

VIDEO: LGE 2021 | Sy Mamabolo talks about IEC’s election readiness