Pretoria – Pictures of dumped ballots have spread quickly across social media but just before 7pm on Thursday evening the IEC has said that they had heard no reports of the issue. Boxes of dumped ballots were found this afternoon in Alexandra and Diepsloot in Johannesburg, as well as Lynnwood in Pretoria. The photos of the discovered ballots were retweeted by political party leaders including Helen Zille and Ramphele Mamphele.
For more http://www.iol.co.za
Daily Archives: May 8, 2014
Dumped ballot papers found in PTA
PRETORIA – The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) it is trying to establish the authenticity of reports that bags of ballot papers were found in a park in Lynnwood Ridge, Pretoria.
Eyewitness News established the papers were found in a park on Thursday.
Voting stations were set up for Wednesday’s elections in Cedar Road.
Most of the papers were apparently in favour of the Democratic Alliance (DA).
Sources say the black bags were discovered by residents this morning and collected by an unknown man earlier today.
The IEC says it is aware of the incident and is following up.
The commission has been in touch with the person who reported the matter and is expected to address the matter in a press briefing by chairperson Pansy Tlakula shortly.
For more http://www.ewn.co.za
A 4 year-old girl raped, suspect arrested
By Obakeng Maje
Tsineng- A 42-year-old man from Tsineng village near Kuruman is due to appear before the Mothibistad Magistrate’s Court on Friday for allegedly raping a 4 year-old girl.
The incident happened on Wednesday. Apparently the suspect decoyed the girl into his house and offered her biscuits, where he subsequently raped her.
“After the atrocity the girl went home crying. When she was questioned by her grandmother, she told her that a certain man in the nearby had raped her” Lieutenant Olebogeng Tawana said.
The suspect is behind bars and charged for rape after his arrest on Wednesday.
“The South African Police Service condemns the heinous crimes against children. The criminals are cautioned not to take the advantage of vulnerability of those who cannot defend themselves. On the other hand guardians and parents are urged not to neglect their children as they become the victims of crime” Tawana said.-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_
EFF, IFP accuse ANC of vote rigging
JOHANNESBURG – Alexandra police are investigating an apparent hostage drama linked to alleged vote rigging.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) are both accusing the ANC of vote rigging and tampering in the northern Johannesburg township. Residents say an EFF member found a box of ballot papers at the entrance of the Thusong Service Centre on Thursday morning.
For more http://www.ewn.co.za
Early indications DA winning W Cape
Johannesburg – Preliminary election results show the DA maintaining its Western Cape stronghold, while racing neck and neck with the ANC for the city of Tshwane.
By midday on Thursday, the Electoral Commission in the Western Cape had captured over half of the votes cast.
“We have already counted 1.6 million people and that is a count out of 2.94 million [registered] people…” provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson said.
By noon the Democratic Alliance had obtained just under 60% of the vote in the Western Cape, compared to just over 50% in 2009.
The African National Congress had around 33% of the vote in the Western Cape, followed by the Economic Freedom Fighters with more than 2%.
Surpassed
The African Christian Democratic Party and Freedom Front Plus stood at a little over 1% each in the province.
The Congress of the People dropped to under 1% in the Western Cape.
DA Parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said the party was growing and making inroads in the Western Cape.
Mazibuko was excited about the lead the party had in the province…the only province not governed by the ANC.
The DA had surpassed its 2009 numbers with only half of this year’s votes counted so far.
“We are very upbeat and we are growing significantly in this election,” Mazibuko said.
Garnered
She predicted the DA would do well in Gauteng once all the stations had submitted their results.
“We will do very well once the results for Tshwane and Johannesburg are received and we had a very good premier candidate in Mmusi Maimane,” she said.
Gauteng numbers for the ANC and the DA were fairly even in the City of Tshwane.
Out of the 35 719 votes counted, the ANC secured 15 765 with 14 659 votes for the DA.
The FF Plus was a distant third in Tshwane with 6.29% of the vote (2 248), while the EFF garnered 1 881.
By midday on Thursday, the ANC was leading nationally in the election race with over four million votes, just over 62% of the counted votes.
The DA secured 1.7m votes (23.01%).
Julius Malema’s EFF was in third position with 362,063 votes (4.73%).
Midnight
Meanwhile, the IEC said results from the eThekwini metro municipality were likely to be the last to be finalised in KwaZulu-Natal.
In Durban, the province’s chief electoral officer Mosery Mawethu said counting of votes was continuing at three Durban polling stations by mid-morning.
All counting at the rest of the province’s 4 746 polling stations and capturing of the results was under way.
The final capturing of results in the province was expected to be completed by midnight on Thursday.-Sapa
ANC ‘confident’ about Gauteng results
Pretoria – The ANC is confident that it will win Gauteng comfortably, according to party national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu.
“Gauteng is the ANC’s home, we will win it,” he said to News24 at the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s national results operations centre in Pretoria on Thursday.
The ANC currently has over 380 000 votes in Gauteng, compared to just over 180 000 from its closest rival, the DA.
Meanwhile, ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte told News24 that the ANC is “on the whole very happy” with how the elections have proceeded thus far, and that things were looking positive for Gauteng.
“It’s early days yet, and we can normally see the trend after half the votes are in. There are no big surprises for us so far.”
She added that results have yet to come in from some big wards in Gauteng, so she is expecting a further improvement in the ANC’s results.
For more http://www.news24.com
ANC ‘hasn’t discussed’ W Cape coalition
Pretoria – The ANC says it has not yet considered entering into coalition talks in the Western Cape, as initial results show it is lagging significantly behind the DA in the province.
Currently, the DA has over 960 000 votes in the province, while the ANC has just over 520 000.
ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte told News24 at the IEC national results operations centre in Pretoria that the possibility of entering into a coalition “has not been discussed”.
ANC national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu reiterated what Duarte said, saying “there are no coalition talks yet”.
However, he added that the ANC’s strongholds are mostly in rural areas in the Western Cape, and many of those results are not yet in.
“We are keeping our options open,” he said.
For more http://www.news24.com
Premier Modise applauds voters for taking part in elections
North West Premier Thandi Modise has applauded voters who came out in their numbers to exercise their democratic right in the national and provincial elections held on Wednesday.
“The high voter turnout in most areas and participation of first time voters shows confidence in participatory democracy. Beyond elections, we should sustain the enthusiasm though regular constructive engagements and feedback on implementation of government’s programmes of action in order to deepen our democracy,” Premier Modise said.
Modise said the provincial government is determined to address all issues that were brought to its attention in the run-up to the elections adding that violent protests are not the answer to addressing issues that affect communities.
“We have not received reports of employers denying workers the right to exercise their constitutional right to vote and wish to express our profound appreciation for the positive response to our earlier plea,” she said.-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_
Election results come in steadily
Johannesburg – Election results streamed in steadily across the country overnight and early on Thursday morning, but the two major cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town lagged behind.
Nationally, a total of over 5.4 million votes had been counted by 09:00.
The Western Cape was in a better position than Gauteng, where the metropole had reported a little vote counting by dawn and the City of Johannesburg still had to submit data.
Of the 2.9m registered voters in the Western Cape, just over 1.1m votes had been counted on the national ballot and 1.1m on the provincial ballot by 08:00.
In Gauteng, with over six million registered voters, 297 950 national ballots and 284 898 provincial ballot votes had been counted by around 07:30.
Provincial votes
And while the city of Johannesburg was moving at a snail’s pace to provide data, the Tshwane metro – with more than 1.4m registered voters – had seen less than 1 500 votes counted by about 07:30.
The Emfuleni municipality, south of Johannesburg, was also proportionately slow as 13 772 national votes and 13 511 provincial votes had been counted out of 358 891 registered voters.
Ekurhuleni, with 1 547 459 registered voters, had yet to cross the 10% mark in vote counting.
Vote counting for the other municipalities in Gauteng, including Mogale City, Lesedi, Randfontein, Midvaal, Westonaria, and Merafong City moved at a faster pace, given their smaller sizes.
Leading the election race was the African National Congress which had surpassed the three million votes mark before 09:00.
The Democratic Alliance followed with more than a million votes.
The ANC had 3.2m votes, making up 60.4% of all counted votes.
The DA had 1.3m votes, making up 25.6% of counted votes.
The Economic Freedom Fighters had 4.3% of the votes [233 226] thus far, and the Inkatha Freedom Party 2.1% [116 574].
Parties
The Freedom Front Plus secured 1.11% of the national vote [59 437] so far, and closely behind was the United Democratic Movement with 1% [54 219].
Some political parties were struggling for survival with less than a percentage point of the national vote.
The Congress of the People was standing at 0.82% [44 183], while it was not clear yet if Agang SA would have enough support to secure a seat in Parliament.
By 09:00 Agang SA had only secured 0.20% [10 841] of the national vote.
The Workers and Socialist Party stood at 0.05% [2 778 votes] and the Pan Africanist Movement 0.02% [1 342].
– SAPA
Kasrils didn’t spoil his vote – report
Johannesburg – Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils stood in a queue for over thirty minutes to cast his vote on Wednesday, according to a City Press report.
“I voted for two parties, nationally and provincially, but not the ANC or the DA,” he said.
For more http://www.news24.com
The Guardian 