NKOSINGIPHILE DLADLA
Durban — Political parties have objected to the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) final vote count, including the four-month-old MK Party, citing inconsistencies in numbers as possible “rigging”.
African Transformation Movement (ATM), which did not do well in the election in KwaZulu-Natal, told the Daily News that although the election was free its fairness was questionable.
According to Sipho Mbalo, ATM’s KZN secretary, the party started objecting to the IEC process on Wednesday, May 29 when party agents were not allowed to bring phones inside a voting station, in one of their voting districts in Mayville, Durban.
He said there was no law prohibiting party agents from bringing in their cellphones. According to his knowledge party agents are allowed to even take pictures of the numbers for reference purposes and to ensure transparency.
“There are cases that the ATM lodged since Wednesday the 29th, where numbers of our voters were removed from stations where they had been voting for years. This year when they got there, they were not on the voters roll,” Mbalo said.
He said the Ensimbini voting district in Mayville denied all party agents from entering the voting station with their phones. This was questionable for the party and they raised their concerns with the IEC.
Mbalo said a lack of party agents in certain regions like Majuba and uMzinyathi, made things worse for the ATM when it came to fairness.
“In Harry Gwala and the Greater Kokstad, there are slips where an agent would send us that about 35 voted for us, only to have the IEC capture that as a zero,” said Mbalo.
Objecting to the IEC closed at 6pm on Sunday.
The ATM got 6 474 votes which is only 0.18%. As a result, it has no seat in the provincial legislature.
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Daily News