The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in Limpopo confirmed that a man stormed a voting station as counting was underway at night, demanding his girlfriend return home.
IEC provincial chairperson Nkaro Mateta was reluctant to disclose the area where the incident happened, but described it as “alarming”.
Addressing the media at the regional operations centre in Polokwane on Friday, Mateta explained: “When the presiding officer tried to explain [to the man] that we cannot open the voting station until we are done with counting, the man assaulted our official [the presiding officer].
“There are two cases [against the man] – one is common assault and the other is interference. The police, I think, can speak for themselves on how far they are with the investigations.”
Objections
Mateta also announced that the commission had received four objections under section 55 of the Electoral Act. The objections have an impact on the announcement of the election results.
“The commission will never announce the results until all these objections are resolved,” Mateta said.
She said three objections were received from the EFF and another from Agang SA.
The three from the EFF are related to tampering with special votes in Mogalakwena; the IEC permitting those not on a special vote list to cast their votes in Musina and a presiding officer allowing campaigning on special vote day in Tzaneen.
Agang SA complained that a presiding officer refused to allow counting to take place in one of the voting stations in the province.
“All the cases are being investigated as they have an impact on the results of the elections,” Mateta said.
“What is going to happen is that all our officials at the centre will contact those stations to find out what exactly happened and the report will be submitted for the commission to make a decision on all these objections,” she said.
