Parties in Nelson Mandela Bay lodge objections over result discrepancies

Six political parties in Nelson Mandela Bay have collectively lodged an objection with the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), seeking a two-day extension to the deadline set to file disputes.

The cut off time to file disputes was Friday at 9pm.

The urgent objection was signed by representatives from the UDM, GOOD, EFF, ATM, PAC and Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party comes after what the parties said were several discrepancies they noticed at various voting stations that require answers.

"We, the undersigned parties noting the provisions of sections 55 of the Electoral Act and the 9pm deadline on the said day and given numerous inconsistencies raised at the MPLC (municipal party liaison committee) meeting this evening at the IEC results centre that have not been responded to, and while we reserve our rights herein as political parties to raise objections in terms of section 55, we jointly request condonation until 48 hours after the last ballot paper has been scanned and submitted for verification," parties wrote in their objection letter addressed to IEC commissioners on Friday.

Meanwhile, the DA and UDM have lodged a combined six objections, with responses from the IEC still outstanding.

The first objection was filed by the DA on Thursday but could not processed at the time because of an outstanding sworn affidavit.

Speaking on Saturday, DA Eastern Cape chair Yusuf Cassim said they were impatiently awaiting a response on all three disputes because the result could get them an extra seat at the Bhisho legislature.

Cassim said their first dispute with the IEC stems from MTR Smit station in Overbaakens where 136 ballots were declared spoilt.

"There are 136 ballots where the intention of the voter is clear, and the the legislation is very clear on this but yet the presiding officer disregarded them as spoilt ballots," Cassim said.

"At NG Kerk in Sherwood, there are two ballot boxes from the special vote days that have not been counted at all.

"It's quite a number of votes because this particular station was one of those that had long queues of people. "We have not been given a reason why they were not counted, but of course we know these two boxes exist and we have their serial numbers."

At Peter Rademeyer Hall in Algoa Park, Cassim said the presiding officer added the total number of the special votes for the DA to the regional ballot total on the results slip, but did not do it on provincial and national slips.

"When we add up all these issues together, we think there could be about 700 votes concerned that potentially could be for the DA because all three voting stations are in our wards and we already got very high votes recorded in these stations.

"There's absolutely no reason why a PO (presiding officer) would make such a decision at MTR Smit hence we would like a recount of the ballot concerned because it can't be an error, it's in fact indicative of the bias that exists and in the other two station we hope it wasn't deliberate," Cassim said.

As vote capturing improved from Friday evening, after starting at a slow pace, political parties such as the UDM picked up more of what they said were disparities and formally raised their concerns with the IEC.

UDM provincial deputy secretary Bulelani Bobotyane said their issues were with the St George's Cricket Stadium station where results meant for national results slip were erroneously recorded on the regional slip and those for the regional recorded for national.

"Our other dispute is with a results slip at Khulile Primary School voting station in Motherwell where 30 votes were recorded for the UDM but, the UDM was 'defrauded'  of10 votes when they were captured in the system.

"We have evidence sent from our party agent and member of party liaison committee (MPLC) in the region," Bobotyane said.

IEC regional results centre assistant manager Johannes Nkoana said they were pressed for time and therefore could no longer attend to the media until the results had been finalised.

"We have meeting in between to resolve issues raised by the parties which take time, so if I allow interviews with each media that comes here it means I'm also delaying in the work I'm supposed to be doing to ensure the results are out on time," Nkoana said.

IEC Eastern Cape spokesperson Sanda Nodada said he would solicit information from Nkoana about the issues raised.

The MPLC held a meeting at the IEC regional results centre on Friday afternoon where all contesting parties were represented to raise their concerns about the discrepancies.

EFF councillor Ziyanda Mqokoyi said their main concerns were related to what they said were the incorrect capturing of votes.

"It seems that this region is releasing the results quite slowly. As parties we agreed that capturing continues and we will note all the discrepancies.

"We also noted the incompetence of IEC officials at the stations which also led to these discrepancies and subsequent objections."

ANC deputy regional elections task team member Mncedisi Nontsele said they welcomed the work done by the IEC officials in resolving some if the outstanding disputes. 

"As much as there are areas that need to be resolved, we have reached this stage to ensure we are able to announce the final results," he said.

"It will be a huge milestone that will bring clarity particularly regarding the disputes that also resulted to the delays in capturing of votes."

PAC regional researcher Xolani Mamkeli said they were happy that some parties filed objections because there were several other disparities they heard about on the ground but did not want to lodge further disputes and delay the announcement of the final results.

"We saw how slowly the IEC deals with issues with the DA matter, so didn't want to prolong the process but we hope all disputes are resolved because the reputation of the IEC depends on it."

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