KZN election results could change as IEC considers late objections

KwaZulu-Natal’s election results could still shift as the IEC considers late objections that may affect outcomes in some wards and municipalities, provincial electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga, above, has warned.

KwaZulu-Natal’s preliminary local government election results could still change as the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) considers late objections that may have a material impact on the outcome, the commission’s provincial electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga has warned.

Addressing the provincial results announcement, Masinga said the IEC was still considering objections submitted after the prescribed deadline under Section 65 of the Municipal Electoral Act.

The commission must determine whether to reject the objections or condone their late submission before finalising the affected results.

She explained that the objections could have implications at voting station, ward and municipal level, meaning the outcome in some areas may still be affected.

“It is important to announce that the results that we are announcing today are preliminary results subject to the consideration of some of the Section 65s that were submitted late,” Masinga said.

She cautioned political parties and the public against treating the current figures as final.

“Don’t be surprised if there is a slight change in some of the results given that we do not know the outcome of the Section 65 objections that were submitted late and may still be condoned by the Electoral Commission,” she said.

Masinga said the seven-day period for the commission to programme the results would expire on Wednesday, November 11. KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 11% of all Section 65 objections submitted nationally.

Masinga said the province recorded a voter turnout of 49%, a few percentage points above the national average, although the IEC had hoped for greater participation.

KwaZulu-Natal is the country’s second-largest province in terms of voter population, accounting for 21% of registered voters nationally, behind Gauteng.

While acknowledging those who participated, Masinga said the turnout meant that the people elected to serve in local government would have been chosen by only about half of the province’s voting population.

The province recorded a spoiled ballot rate of 1.45%, which Masinga said was below the 2% figure regarded as an acceptable international norm in assessing the freeness and fairness of elections.

The IEC dismissed 25 temporary election staff members during the election period for various breaches, including displaying partisan behaviour at voting stations and failing to comply with the electoral framework.

Masinga said the commission had taken action against employees whose conduct compromised the impartiality expected of election officials.

“The reason I’m singling this one out is that during the course of this week, we had to part ways with 25 electoral staff that we had to terminate on the spot for various reasons, including staff that openly demonstrated their partisan behaviour in voting stations and staff that flouted the election framework,” she said.

The province had deployed more than 40,000 election staff, representing 22% of the IEC’s national workforce for the elections.

Masinga said the dismissals were a small proportion of the overall workforce, with the majority of employees carrying out their duties as expected.

“Twenty-five is 25 too many, but it’s also just a fraction of people that we employ in this province who helped us in the election, and the majority of them did what they were supposed to do,” she said.

Masinga highlighted the fact that none of KwaZulu-Natal’s 5,028 voting stations ran out of ballot papers, despite the scale of the election and the different ballots required for the various electoral contests.

The province had 921 wards, 43 local municipalities, one metropolitan municipality and 10 district councils. Voters received different ballot papers for the relevant electoral levels.

She explained that the IEC printed ballot papers based on the full number of registered voters at each voting station, rounding quantities up to the nearest 100 to provide an additional supply.

Voters who made mistakes while marking their ballots were also allowed to request replacement papers, with the commission permitting up to two replacements.

“But we didn’t have a single out of the 5,028 voting stations that we have in this province where we ran out of ballot papers,” Masinga said.

The provincial electoral officer also outlined some of the logistical challenges faced by the commission in preparing for the elections.

She said ballot papers had already been printed when a court ruling required the IEC to include 19 additional political parties in the election.

The commission had to respond to the ruling while working against tight deadlines, with printing operations running around the clock to ensure that the additional parties were accommodated.

Masinga said the ballot papers were delivered two days before the special voting period began.

The province also had 148 tent voting stations, which required additional logistical arrangements to ensure that voting could proceed.

More than 200,000 special votes were administered in KwaZulu-Natal, accounting for 18% of all special votes nationally.

Masinga addressed concerns around voters whose special vote applications had been submitted before the proclamation of the election dates but were not processed immediately because of connectivity problems in some parts of the province.

She said the affected voters were still allowed to vote because their applications had been submitted within the required period.

The IEC’s voter management devices retained the relevant information, allowing officials to verify the applications despite delays in processing them.

“We may have not processed it all on time because of connectivity challenges in some parts of the province, but that didn’t mean that those people didn’t make it into the voters’ roll,” she said.

To address network difficulties, the IEC worked with telecommunications providers and installed temporary network boosters in areas with poor connectivity.

Home Affairs also extended its operating hours during the special voting period and on election day to assist voters who needed smart identity cards, identity documents or temporary identity certificates.

Masinga said the successful administration of the elections depended on co-operation between the IEC, provincial government departments, municipalities, the security cluster and other stakeholders.

Preparations had started in November last year through the Provincial Election Steering Committee and its various task teams.

These structures focused on voting station infrastructure, access to facilities, connectivity, voter education and security arrangements.

Municipalities and government departments worked with the IEC to prepare voting stations, while Eskom and municipal technical teams assisted with electricity-related challenges. Masinga said there was no area in the province where power outages lasted longer than an hour.

She also acknowledged the role of the security cluster in supporting the electoral process and maintaining a safe environment for voters and election officials.

Political parties and independent candidates were represented through agents at voting stations, while observer missions provided additional oversight.

Masinga said the Political Liaison Committees had also played an important role in the process, including scrutinising voting district maps, voting station arrangements and the appointment of presiding officers and their deputies.

The IEC further worked with independent auditing firm Nexia, which audited result slips from all 5,028 voting stations before the results were announced.

Masinga thanked the more than 40,000 temporary election staff deployed across the province, noting the demanding hours involved in administering special votes, election day and the counting process.

She said presiding officers often worked from early morning until the early hours of the following day to complete their responsibilities.

The IEC has approximately 150 permanent employees in KwaZulu-Natal, including staff at its provincial office and 44 local offices, alongside additional temporary staff brought in to support the election process.