Voting device issues blamed for long queues in Nelson Mandela Bay

Technical issues with voter management devices resulted in long waiting times on Wednesday, causing some voters to abandon their right to vote, forcing the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to redeploy staff from other polling stations to assist in the affected areas.

Long queues in several wards of Nelson Mandela Bay caused some of the last voting stations to close at 11pm, two hours past the scheduled time.

By Thursday afternoon, three voting stations in the Bay were still counting votes: Phaphani Secondary School in KwaNobuhle, Wells Tent in Wells Estate, and Mount Pleasant Primary School.

IEC regional results centre assistance manager Johannes Nkoana said challenges started when they experienced technical device problems.

This had led to long queues, with people still waiting to vote after 7pm, while others gave up and left.

“The problems we had began with the devices where we found some inconsistencies,” Nkoana said.

“There were situations where they were technically problematic to a point that the national IEC office decided that we put them aside where issues were experienced and focus on the voters’ roll and those who applied to vote outside their areas of registration as per Section 24(a) of the Electoral Act so that queues could start moving, and that helped.

“In some areas we had a situation where the voters got tired of standing in queues and decided to leave, and that was beyond our control.”

Nkoana said to expedite the voting process, they brought in staff from voting stations with fewer voters to capacitate others.

“This meant we had to reinforce our capacity by taking some of the staff from stations that were not busy to mitigate the long queues.

“Eventually we won the battle against long queues and we assisted as many voters as possible.”

Some of the areas that experienced problems with the devices were in wards 23, 53 and 60.

In Schauderville, a man was shot dead by the police after he allegedly opened fire on them near a voting station on Wednesday.

He was identified as an alleged gang member, Kurtley Gawie, 28, with the incident said to be unrelated to the elections.

Eastern Cape provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nomthetheleli Mene said the man had tried to enter the voting station with a firearm, and when the police approached him, he allegedly shot at them.

“A person was reported to have a firearm inside the voting station.

“You can’t enter a voting station with a firearm.

“As the police approached him, he shot at our members. The police shot back and he was fatally wounded,” Mene said.

Nkoana said the shooting did not affect voting and the counting continued as staff were moved to a different location for their safety.

“The shooting didn’t happen at the voting station but in the same precinct.

“We got everyone inside the station premises and when everyone had voted, we moved staff to a different location to continue counting.”

HeraldLIVE