DA lodges Ekurhuleni objection
2011-05-20 10:44
Pretoria - "What has happened to the
ward ballots?" DA leader Helen Zille asked on Friday after the party
lodged an objection with the IEC over voting in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, which it
lost to the ANC by 23 votes.
According to the DA a polling station at
Margeret Maltman Creche (KwaThema) allegedly stayed open for half an hour
longer, and at a voting station at Dalview Primary School in Brakpan, 200 more
proportional votes were allegedly counted than ward votes.
"...Two hundred fewer ward ballots
compared to proportional ballots? That's very strange," Zille said.
"What happened to the ward
ballots?"
Zille said if this hadn't happened, the DA
would have won in Ekurhuleni.
"There would have been a different
outcome."
The objection was lodged on Thursday night,
said Mike Moriarty, a senior representative on the party's liaison committee at
the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
He said an affidavit from the DA's party
agent was received earlier on Wednesday, and "this was his version of the
facts".
The DA was seeking a recount of the votes.
"This is enough to cause a
re-election," Moriarty said, adding that if the IEC found no
discrepancies, the party may go to an electoral court.
"We may well do so. We will have to make
decisions based on the outcome [of the objection]."
He said the IEC would in the meantime see if
the complaint had any substance. The presiding officers at the voting stations
would be interviewed. One of the questions to be answered was if voters were
issued with ward ballots.
If there was a finding in the DA's favour the
ANC stood to lose ward seats, Moriarty said.
When asked if DA supporters had been educated
on the fact that voters should be given two ballots at a local government
election, Zille said: "We do that all the time."
- SAPA
