Voters queue outside Bardale Primary School as IEC officials work late into the night to assist those still waiting after 9pm.
Voting progressed well across the Western Cape yesterday with no major incidents reported amid fears of a low voter turnout in the City of Cape Town.
This as long queues were reported in the suburbs while voters trickled in at voting stations on the Cape Flats and the townships.
Delays were reported with offline voter management devices (VMDs), which prompted the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to deploy extra staff to ease waiting times at some voting stations.
The IEC reported that more than 461 000 voters had cast their ballots in the Western Cape as at 10am.
IEC records 824 242 votes by midday
The number shot up to more than 800 000 at midday, with more than half of the ballots cast in the City of Cape Town.
Briefing the media at the Results Operations Centre at Century City, Provincial Electoral Officer Michael Hendricks said all 1623 voting stations were opened.
Hendricks said at some voting stations, there were issues with VMDs that went offline.
“We have to also say that as of now, we have no problems with our voter management devices. We are aware, however, that some of these technical features did lead to long queues in some of our voting stations,” Hendricks said.
He also said the IEC had deployed additional staff to address the queues and additional VMDs.
“We also make sure that we deploy additional material, such as voting booths, to increase the number of streams at these stations as well as additional VMDs just to help with the queue management.”
According to Hendricks, 824 242 people had voted at midday. Of these, 524 162 were in the Cape Town Metro.
VMD outages cause delays at voting stations
Hendricks said voting was expected to continue until the voting stations closed at 9pm.
“Voters are also assured that if they are in the queue as at 9pm, they will still be assisted to cast their ballots,” he added.
Hendricks revealed that the police had to evict a disruptive voter who was also armed at one of Mitchells Plain’s voting stations.
“I know of one incident where a voter arrived in Mitchell's Plain and for some reason he got upset and he was disruptive, in which case we had to ask SAPS to assist us to remove that particular voter because he was armed.
“At this stage we were monitoring that particular situation, but that was the only one that worked.”
Parties give mixed assessments of voter turnout
He confirmed that the IEC had also dismissed one official who reported for work allegedly drunk. His actions resulted in some voters receiving two ballots instead of three in Mossel Bay.
“There was an official who was under the influence and that individual was dismissed from working for the IEC,” Hendricks added.
While parties were generally pleased with the voting, there were concerns over voter turnout.
ANC provincial spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said they had noted that people were only coming out to vote during the course of the day across the province.
“We are hopeful that between now and the close of voting stations, the number of people visiting voting stations will increase. We encourage people in our traditional bases to come out to affirm our candidates,” Mtsweni said.
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis was pleased that the Monday teething problems seemed to have been resolved.
“There were definitely some votes lost on Monday, but the teething problems so far as we see have now been sorted out. Here, the queue seems to be moving fast. The machines are working,” he said during a visit to Edgemead Primary in Cape Town.
GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron noted that voting was slow and long queues were experienced in the Cape Town suburbs while it was relatively quiet on the Cape Flats and the townships.
“I am concerned about turnout among the Cape Flats and the townships. It seems the suburbs have turned out in high numbers. It is trickling throughout the day on the Cape Flats and the townships,” Herron said.
He noted there were unreasonable decisions by some presiding officers about forms signed by party agents as well as the VMDs that went offline.
“We will take it up with the IEC at the national liaison committee. The main concern is that we may have a low voter turnout.”
“(The DA) rely on people in the suburbs to turn up in high numbers and the Cape Flats and townships with a much lower turnout. That gives them an easier path to majority,” he said.
SACP provincial secretary Benson Ngqentsu said his party was impressed by the number of people queuing at voting stations in places such as Stellenbosch, Kraaifontein, Mbekweni and others.
“The numbers are promising in terms of the people in queues to vote regardless of the party they are to vote for. It is very profound,” Ngqentsu said.
“It is early to make a determination. The results will tell whether we will achieve what we want to achieve,” said Ngqentsu.
He also said it was heartwarming to see party agents showing political tolerance.