IEC prepared for CT outages

2006-02-28 23:24

Cape Town - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Western Cape is planning to conduct Wednesday's municipal election as if there will be no power available in the province.

"We are planning for no electricity. That is the safest," provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson told a media briefing in Bellville on Tuesday afternoon.

Cape Town and other towns in the province have been suffering from "rolling" power outages since early Tuesday morning, when the Koeberg nuclear power station again shut down due to technical problems.

Sampson said indications from state electricity utility Eskom and the regional electricity distributor, RED One, were that there would indeed be power outages in the Western Cape on Wednesday.

'Go early'

He appealed to voters to turn out early.

"We are asking voters to go to the polls as early as possible.

"We want to avoid a situation where too many voters arrive half an hour before the voting station closes (at 19:00)."

Sampson said the voting process itself did not require electricity.

However, there were concerns for the evening when the light started to fade and the counting process began.

"We are comfortable we will have lights and candles," he said.

The electricity authorities had provided a schedule of when the power would be off and where, but he was unable to provide a copy for the media.

Eskom had undertaken to supply generators to municipalities in the Western Cape should the need arise on Wednesday evening.

Only the George municipality had taken up the offer so far, Sampson said.

- SAPA