Johannesburg- The Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) says that election officials were removed from their voting station in Nigel, in the East Rand, after voting materials were found stored at the house of a party agent.

The IEC says that staff in ward 77 contravened elections protocol by using the house of a party agent to store voting materials overnight between special voting days.

They said that the voting materials were removed from the premises and taken to a nearby police station for storage.

Earlier, IEC chair Pansy Tlakula said some ballot papers had been accidentally dropped from a van in Cape Town on Sunday.

“They were found. Please let us not be alarmist. We recovered all those ballot papers.”
“The ballot papers have serial numbers so we are able to trace each ballot paper to its voting station. We report this matter to the party liaison committee, for transparency.”

She said the lost and found ballot papers would not be used in the elections.

A message was then transmitted to IEC officials “to take special care when they deliver ballot papers”.

“You would know that in our country, people will hire vehicles which are not up to standard for this purpose [transporting ballots].
“We have given a firm instruction that vehicles that transport ballots must be properly secured and must have features that enable that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again,” said Tlakula.

South Africa’s fifth national and provincial elections will be held on 7 May.

Tlakula said everything was in place at the country’s 22 263 voting stations, which would welcome the anticipated 25.39 million registered voters.
-Sapa