Three voting stations in KwaZulu-Natal were not able to open and operate on the first day of the voter registration. The affected voting stations are in Msunduzi Municipality’s Ward 15.
IEC KwaZulu-Natal Electoral Operations Manager Ntombifuthi Masinga says community protests resulted in these stations being closed the entire day.
“Registration kicked off in 4 940 voting stations in the province. We, however, experienced pockets of service delivery protests in some parts of the province resulting in some voting stations having to open late. I think the worst case scenario is in Msunduzi Municipality, where three voting stations remained closed for the rest of the day, as the members of the SAPS, the IEC and community leaders tried to engage the community to enable the voting registration process to continue. We are hopeful that by tomorrow, those issues would have been dealt with and the people of Ward 15 in Msunduzi Municipality can be able to go to the voting stations.”
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court judgment in the matter between the Electoral Commission and the Democratic Alliance has been delayed. The decision was expected to be made at 3pm this afternoon.
In a statement, the ConCourt says the judgment will be now be delivered later this afternoon or early this evening.
The official opposition has made an application against the IEC’s re-opening of the submission of the candidates’ list for the local government elections. It says the decision was meant to help the ANC after it failed to register and submit lists of names of its would-be councillors in over 90 municiplaities.
Speaking during the voter registration campaign in Soweto, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa says they will abide by the court’s decision.
LGE 2021 | ANC president Ramaphosa leads the election campaign with NEC members:
