ANC vote does not add up
2007-12-20 10:48
Bloemfontein - Figures that do not add up and suspicious registration procedures have raised the notion amongst the losing side of the African National Congress (ANC) in Polokwane that the voting process was tampered with, Beeld reported on Thursday.
The report said although conference delegates were told that only 3 900 people were entitled to vote some 3 983 turned up at the voting stations.
The total amount of votes, including spoiled voting papers, was however consistently about 100 lower from the number of people who voted.
The report said "various informed people" in the Thabo Mbeki camp were convinced that tampering took place by a (voting) company, which they accused of having links with new ANC president Jacob Zuma.
The company has denied all "unreasonable links".
Human error
Meanwhile ANC spokesperson Steyn Speed, who could not explain the difference in numbers between registered voters and the number of votes brought out, said human error could happen from time to time and that the counting process would have been repeated if the margin was small.
"In this case the difference was so big that we thought it was not necessary," he said.
A party member was quoted in the report as saying: "It is not possible that we, in three weeks, convinced nobody to vote for Mbeki".
Nevertheless, they were prepared to accept the results and would not "run to court".
On Tuesday, Jacob Zuma was elected president of the ANC, by well over 800 votes.
- SAPA