Two KZN voting stations closed, ballot papers stolen – IEC

A security stamp and ballot papers were stolen from an eThekwini voting station last night and two KwaZulu-Natal voting stations in Umzumbe on the South Coast remain closed after torrential rains destroyed access roads.

These are among the disruptions election officials have had to grapple with as well as heightened security threats after an incident where political party supporters stormed a satellite storage facility yesterday.

Electoral Commission KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Electoral Officer Ntombifuthi Masinga briefed the media on the Local Government Election voting process so far this week, noting that out of 5,028 voting stations across the province, only a fraction have experienced operational hiccups. Some six million registered voters are expected to cast their vote across the province.

Masinga said there had been a security breach at Mnyameni Secondary School in Ward 2 in eThekwini, where unused ballots and an official security stamp were stolen.

She said because fresh security packs and new stamps are uniquely issued on each election morning, the stolen stamp is technically invalid. Masinga detailed the verification protocols being implemented, including numbered stamps, to prevent any compromised ballots from entering the count.

"What we will be doing differently is that we are not only checking if the ballot is stamped, we are also checking if the stamp that is used is the authentic stamp that was issued this morning at the voting station,” she said.

Masinga added that political parties have been urged to remain vigilant.

"We've just had a meeting with political parties, and we have asked them to also train their party agents … that this time around, we are not only checking the validity stamp, we are also checking if the stamp is the correct one for today, so that we are able to identify if anyone tries to reintroduce those foreign ballots into the voting station today,” she said.

Masinga raised concern regarding the sudden interest and aggressive actions directed at IEC storage facilities.

In Mariannhill, west of Durban, members of a contesting political party stormed an IEC satellite storage facility at the Dassenhoek Library. The crowds built up and blocked area managers from entering or exiting the facility to retrieve voting materials, prompting an intervention by the SAPS Public Order Policing (POP) unit to restore order. She said political party supporters had also attempted to camp outside storage facilities in Richmond, Mkhambathini, and Pietermaritzburg, however, police had dispersed the crowds.

“Our storage facilities are not public facilities and there's no reason for people to know where we store our materials. People should be worried about only whether there's sufficient material at voting stations and that they arrive on time,” she said.

Following these incidents, the commission requested that SAPS significantly reinforce security across all provincial storage facilities.

Turning to weather-related infrastructure issues, Masinga highlighted the severity of the situation in the affected region.

“As we speak now, we still have two voting stations that are not open in the province in Umzumbe municipality. This is due to the challenges that were encountered with the road that is not accessible in some of the voting stations. The road has washed away. That is because of the damage experienced in that part of the province due to the rains,” she said.

She highlighted that multi-agency security and disaster response forces have been deployed to establish safe access.

"The SAPS and the SANDF are trying to come up with measures on how we can reach the two voting stations. There were originally three. We have now been able to reach the third one. The other two are still difficult to access, and we are hopeful that the SANDF will be able to assist us,” she said.

Masinga said that once these voting stations open today the commission was committed to ensure all voters waiting in the queue would be attended to before closure.

However, she said the commission was concerned about further inclement weather forecast for the province where some 148 tent structures are being used as voting stations because there are not available buildings.

“We have been warned that there are level two and level three storms expected in the Midland region … We therefore appeal to our voters in those parts of the province if they can try and get to the voting stations early because these storms are predicted for late afternoon, early evening today,” she said.

Masinga said 50 voting stations in eThekwini and two in Ulundi opened an hour late due to logistical delays in delivering essential voting materials. However, she said the IEC maintains strict thresholds for handling operational crises.

“I'm not saying it's okay to open after eight, but we consider it a crisis if a voting station has not opened at 8 o'clock,” she said.

Providing a final tally on special votes cast on Monday and Tuesday, Masinga said the province had a target of 362,000 special votes. She said a total of 110 767 votes were administered through home visits and 223,530 special votes were cast at voting stations.

Masinga said the special-vote ballot boxes would be returned to voting stations for counting on election day, then moved to the provincial site after the count.

Voters looking to verify their correct voting station or find their sequence number can use the following official channels:

Toll-free number: 0800 11 8000

SMS service: Send your ID number to 32810

WhatsApp service: Send "hi" to 061 008 8000

Online portal: Visit the official IEC website

Masinga said polling stations across KwaZulu-Natal will officially close at 9 p.m. although everyone already standing inside the queue by that closing time will be permitted to cast their ballot.