Residents in wards 21, 22, and 99 were on Sunday forced to go back to their polling stations to cast their ballots again during the rerun of the City of Tshwane’s ward committee elections.
This was after the elections that took place last month were bedevilled by some logistical problems and political squabbles.
There were also concerns raised that a Laudium polling station didn’t have a voters roll to make sure the eligibility of voters was verified before voting during the August ward elections.
Council speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana, however, refuted such claims, saying officials used the IEC Cloud to access the voters roll.
The Laudium ward poll was, however, not among the voting stations where the election rerun was recommended.
Tshwane ward committee elections were conducted after the 2014 ruling by the High Court in Pretoria, nullifying elections that took place in 2012.
The ruling followed a court bid by the DA questioning the constitutionality of the elections on the basis that they excluded the participation of public members.
The City’s process for correcting the unconstitutionality of the by-law have been delayed on several occasions.
Ward 21 councillor, Phumzile Mbokane, expressed satisfaction that the re-election went well with no political fighting reported as compared to the previous one.
She said the metro police were deployed to the voting station in Mabopane Block X’s revenue office to ensure the process ran smoothly.
“All the IEC officials were there on time and the party agents were also there until the last moment,” she said.
Mbokane said last time the officials came late at about 2pm, and many elderly people had gone home after waiting for eight hours in queues.
“On Sunday some people didn’t come to vote and the number was a bit low, but everything went well,” she said.
Councillor for ward 22, Catherine Mabaswa, was also pleased with the manner in which voting at Tsibogo Primary School panned out.
“This time around voting went well. Unfortunately, the last time the IEC officials arrived at 2pm instead of 8am and many people decided to go home. That is what led to the rescheduling of the election date,” she said.
Ndzwanana said the independent electoral management body decided that there should be re-elections following a special meeting to address objections related to the recent ward committee elections.
“The meeting focused on several objections concerning logistical problems during the elections in wards 21 and 22, which led to the presiding officers closing the voting stations early due to security concerns, in accordance with section 20(4)(f) of the by-law that states in case of ongoing disorderly or disruptive conduct, in consultation with the independent electoral management body, close the voting station until such disorderly or disruptive conduct has ceased, and submit a report to the office of the speaker,” he said.
Pretoria News