By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has assured the South Africans that the election results management process has been compliant with electoral legislation.
The commission held a press conference on Saturday afternoon to provide an update on objections and vote capturing.
It said it was doing everything it could to ensure the finalisation of the capturing and auditing of the results.
As of 4pm on Friday, the progress relating to the capture of the results per province was as follows:
- Eastern Cape was at 92.13%, with 4485 of the 4 868 voting districts completed.
- Free State is at 95.52%, with 1 515 of 1 586 voting districts completed.
- Gauteng was at 75.33%, with 2 107 of the 2 797 voting districts completed.
- KwaZulu-Natal was at 75.37%, with 3 749 of 4 974 voting districts completed.
- Mpumalanga was at 91.94% with 1 665 of 1 811 Voting Districts completed.
- Northern Cape was at 100% with 730 of 730 Voting Districts completed.
- Limpopo was at 80.78% with 2 598 of 3 216 Voting Districts completed.
- The North West was at 88.61% with 1 540 of 1 738 Voting Districts completed.
- Western Cape was at 88.99% with 1 399 of 1 572 Voting Districts completed.
Early on Saturday morning the ANC had 40.11%, while the DA was sitting on 21.71% and the MK party had got 14.82% of the vote so far.
“As part of finalising the results management process, the commission wishes to assure this nation and everyone else that is following our elections, that we continue to place priority on the finalisation of these results, in a transparent and orderly manner.
“We are not going to rush. We are not going to overlook anything,” said IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya.
Moepya said the IEC and its chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo have — after engaging with the party liaison committee (PLC) — received a request for the IEC to look at the objections that will be filed late.
“I am very pleased — as we have communicated to the PLC — that the commission has, in fact, agreed to that request because there is a lot of goodwill that must be shown throughout this election compilation process, “said Moepya.
Moepya said the IEC had agreed that the objection process would continue until 6pm on Saturday evening.
“The commission welcomes this constructive way of allowing political parties and independent candidates to bring their deep-felt concerns to the commission, and for the commission to engage similarly. This is very important in an electoral contest,” he said.
He said that the IEC “wishes to reiterate that every concern raised in this objection [process] will be conceded, and we will do so carefully”.
“We are not going to be technical, we are going to look at the issues that are brought before us and we are going to consider them in the process of ensuring the integrity of these elections,” he said.
“Where the commission finds materiality through the results process, it will order appropriate remedies — which in some instances may include specific recounts,” Moepya continued.
Moepya said the IEC wishes to assure South Africa that it will take it into its confidence “right until the end”.
The GOOD Party’s Brett Heron said they had applied for condonation to submit a late objection over discrepancies between the numbers at the voting districts and those which were eventually displayed by the IEC.
Activist and independent candidate Zackie Achmat and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have since withdrawn their objections.
The Umkhonto weSizwe party (MKP) is calling for a recount of the ballots cast in Wednesday’s elections, claiming that the process was rigged to prevent it from securing an outright majority in KwaZulu-Natal.
In the Western Cape, where the Democratic Alliance (DA) has taken 55% of the vote and retained its majority, a number of smaller parties have written to the IEC requesting a manual recount of votes cast in the province.
Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said the results management process anywhere in the world and in any election is the most sensitive time of the election management process. In this regard, the commission is mindful that all electoral stakeholders must remain confident in the integrity of the results management process as a whole.
He said the IEC engaged with service providers regarding the electoral process as part of election planning. As a result, the results system used during the election was specified, developed, tested and that process required the services of professional auditors who would audit the system to ensure that it would do what it was designed to do.
“Once Deloiitte had audited the systems and assured us that it will do what it is designed to do, the process was open to contestants in the national political liaison committee. They had an opportunity— a window period— to look at the systems and to bring their own auditors to satisfy themselves,” Mamabolo said.
The IEC seemingly alluded that the political parties have few things to complain about seeing that they could test the system themselves.
“That [testing the system] process was finalised and contestants were happy,” Mamabolo said.
The chief executive said that for purposes of transparency, Grant Thornton Consortium of Auditors, have been procured to deal with the objections from political parties. “They are aware that all of you want a credible outcome”.
Mamabolo appealed to all electoral stakeholders including political leaders, independent candidates, the media, civil society, traditional leadership and organised business “to please remain calm; for leaders to lead this nation at this time; and for voices of reason to continue to prevail”.
BY Saturday 6pm, the ANC had garnered 39.77% of the vote, the DA 21.80%, Umkhonto weSizwe party had 14.37% and the EFF was at 9.65%.