Some special voters suspiciously healthy: IEC

2011-05-17 20:15

Cape Town - Apparently fit and able voters in the Western Cape ducked Wednesday's queues and forecasts of rain to cast special votes at home, provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson joked on Tuesday.

"We did find very healthy people who voted at home," Sampson said at the IEC media centre in Bellville South, adding that his staff did not press the point.

"Maybe their illnesses were where we could not see. We just allowed people [to] vote... we did not want to begin to question people's infirmity. They did apply."

Sampson said that by Tuesday morning, 12 000 people had cast special votes in the province and another 7 000 were expected to have done so by 17:00.

He said voting had gone smoothly with the exception of an incident in Berg River where an official assisting a special voter appeared to manipulate the person's choice. He had since been sacked.

"He placed the vote in another party's box. We thought it was serious enough to replace the person."

On Wednesday, voters head to 1 570 voting stations in the Western Cape to elect representatives in 387 wards.

The province is expected to see a close race in the Cape Town metro between the Democratic Alliance and the African National Congress, which lost control of the city to the opposition in 2006.

- SAPA