While Hout Bay residents braved the morning chill to make sure they cast their votes on Wednesday August 3, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) officials and interested parties at the Hangberg civic centre discovered that a ballot box containing special votes cast on Tuesday August 2, was damaged.
According to Ward 74 DA candidate, Rob Quintas, the seal at the bottom of the box was broken. He said it was very worrying but thanks to the help of IEC officials, the box was opened in the presence of all parties involved and inspected.
“We checked the names and the numbers on each ballot and it seemed to be in order,” he said.
He added that other problems in the area included voters not being on the voters’ roll despite evidence that they had been registered.
“Thankfully the presiding officers were very helpful and assisted the voters by means of scanning their ID books with the Zip Zap machine,” he said.
Residents voting at the Oranjekloof Moravian Primary School expressed their concern when it appeared that voters, who were not registered to vote, were completing registration forms and then voting.
Mr Quintas said the problem was addressed and it turned out IEC officials were updating voters’ personal details and addresses.
While voters queueing at the library had a long wait, the queue at the civic centre in Hangberg was short. Voters seemed cheerful and eagerly displayed flags and banners representing various parties outside the voting station.
Cornelius du Preez from Hangberg said he was voting for a better life and “no vote means no voice” while Solomon Juries, who was proudly displaying a photograph of his daughter, Jasmin at the age of four kissing an ANC poster, said it was time for change.
“All the DA has done so far is talk about change but we have not seen any changes. When the ANC was in power, change took place. They have built homes and multi-purpose centres like the civic centre,” he said.