Special voting day concludes

South Africa's Electoral Commission of South Africa estimated that seven hundred eighty thousand special votes were cast across the country on Monday, the first day of special voting for the two thousand twenty-six Local Government…

Cape Town stations delayed

The IEC confirmed that all two hundred seventeen voting stations affected by delays in Cape Town had subsequently opened and remained operational throughout Monday.

Ballot papers arrived late

The delays were attributed to late distribution of ballot papers. The commission's distribution process continued into the early hours of Monday morning and had not been fully completed by the scheduled eight am opening time.

“The ballot papers had been printed, but we were still in the process of finalising the distribution. Indeed, that process went into the early hours of today.”

Scale makes irregularities inevitable

IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo said some irregularities were inevitable given the scale of the electoral process, involving one hundred twenty-seven thousand staff members and twenty-three thousand voting stations.

“When you deal with a programme as big as an election, involving 127,000 staff members and 23,000 voting stations, aberrations are going to arise.”

Two officials injured or died

In KwaZulu-Natal, a Deputy Presiding Officer was hit by a car while travelling to the uKhahlamba district voting station and remained hospitalised. In North West, a presiding officer collapsed while on duty and subsequently died.

Ballot secrecy concerns raised

SABC political analyst Kanyi Magubane complained that voting booths at Rivonia Village Hall were positioned so election officials and others could see how voters marked their ballots, compromising ballot secrecy.

“I voted, but I didn't vote comfortably.”

IEC defends booth arrangement

The IEC explained that presiding officers had been instructed to position voting booths in an ATM-style arrangement, allowing officials to observe the voting process without seeing how voters marked their ballots, while preventing ballot photography.

Performance expected to improve

The IEC said operations will improve before Wednesday's main voting day, as staff have now had opportunity to practise what they learned in training. Special voting continues Tuesday from eight am to five pm.

“Tomorrow, the whole operation will improve because people have had an opportunity today to put into practice what they learnt in training.”