The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in KwaZulu-Natal says they are expecting a high voter turn-out in both the eThekwini and Nkandla municipality by-elections underway in the province.
The eThekwini municipality’s ward 10 that was previously under the Democratic Alliance (DA) became vacant when the councillor resigned.
The Nkandla municipality in the northern part of the province’s ward seven became vacant after the death of a councillor.
KwaZulu-Natal IEC Manager Ntombifuthi Masinga says by law when a ward councillor position becomes available, by-elections must be held.
“Both these two councillors in eThekwini and Nkandla were ward councillors and by law you have to go through by-elections for Ward councillors. We are closing voting stations at 9pm and we will count at the stations when we close,” adds Masinga.
“The results as soon as we have concluded with our results and finalised them they will becomes available under the IEC website by tomorrow (Thursday). The stations have just opened so we do expect a high voter turn-out in both these municipalities although the history of by-elections is that usually we see a turn-out of between 40 and 50 percent when it’s by-elections because it’s not a public holiday,” explains Masinga.
