Political parties concerned over ‘double voting’, lack of ballot papers

Several political parties have raised concerns over the credibility of the 2019 national and provincial elections as the debate rages on over the veracity of Wednesday’s voting process. 

Voters around the country have raised various issues with the process, including the apparent ease of removing the ink placed on thumbs after casting a vote. 

"We have in total put in about 2500 complaints with the IEC and many of them are still unresolved. The most serious of them being the fact that ballots run out at many voting stations early in the morning which we find inexcusable. More worryingly, there is evidence that there was a significant number of people that were able to vote more than once because of the ink and the breakdown of the ID scanners," the DA's James Selfe said at the Independent Electoral Commission’s National Results Operation Centre in Tshwane. 

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The PAN Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) secretary-general Apa Pooe said he fears the results will not correlate. 

"Our biggest concern is that people were able to vote more than once. We have gathered enough evidence and we will take this up with the IEC." 

Selfe said the IEC needs to give assurance that it would deal with these complaints to ensure a fair election process. 

In a statement released late on Wednesday, the IEC said it has no concerns over the overall integrity of the electoral process.

The commission added that it views the allegations of double voting in a serious light and has launched investigations into the incidents.