IEC defends voter management devices

THE ELECTORAL Commission (IEC) has stood by its voter management devices despite the machines presenting glitches and problems through the election process on Monday.

IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said they believed the voter management devices (VMDs) were the mainstay equipment for this election.

He said it was these devices that ensured the IEC continued to meet the Constitutional Court’s injunction that voters only vote in the wards in which they are registered and that every voter must have an address on the voters roll.

In a morning briefing held at the National Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Tshwane on Tuesday, Mamabolo said that 12,186,869 votes were processed through the VMDs over the two days of special votes as well as election day.

“This means that we are confident that these voters voted in the wards in which they are ordinarily resident. This is an important control measure in a local government election,” Mamabolo said.

“Through the use of the technology, the Commission was able for the first time to register voters and simultaneously capture their addresses during the registration weekend in September. Address capturing would have taken months to complete without the VMD, as was previously the case.”

Over the election period, a total of 176,006 additional addresses were included on the voters roll from voters who previously did not have an address, the IEC reported.

Mamabolo said that if voters presented themselves at voting stations where they were not on the voters roll but there was proof that they had applied for registration at that voting station before the date of the proclamation of the election, such voters were entitled to vote using the procedure prescribed in section 7(2) of the Municipal Electoral Act.

“Given technical glitches during the registration weekend, some voters were captured manually while others were captured on VMDs but not uploaded. These voters were entitled to participate in the election,” he said.

Mamabolo said there were a total of 238,403 voters who were eventually placed on the MEC 7 list which was centrally connected with all VMDs ​​- 129,615 of those on these lists voted in their correct voting stations.

– Political Bureau