Over 800 election complaints lodged; most relate to voting station staff conduct - News24

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has received more than 800 complaints following Wednesday’s election, with the majority relating to voting-station staff conduct and the obstruction of party observers during voting and counting.

Deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi said by late Wednesday, the preponderance of complaints centred on staff not allowing parties to continually observe the counting and voting process.

“The majority of those objections were closed and determined. Only about 106 remain open,” Sheburi said.

However, he said the complaints process is more nuanced than a simple tally suggests, operating on three distinct levels that determine how objections are handled and their potential impact on results.

The first level involves objections dealt with by presiding officers at individual voting stations.

The second comprises complaints raised directly with the IEC.

The third and most significant category allows contestants to raise objections material to the outcome of declared results.

The IEC is legally prohibited from declaring results before the deadline for material objections, even though preliminary counts indicate that 15.9 million South Africans participated in both special voting and election day voting.

“The commission does not want to keep the country in angst, and for that reason, it will release the result as soon as all objections have been obtained,” Sheburi said.

Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo addressed concerns about party agents not countersigning result slips, clarifying this does not invalidate official results.

“When party agents don’t countersign the result slip, it doesn’t invalidate that result slip. That result slip remains official as signed by the presiding officer,” Mamabolo said.

The complaints highlight tensions at voting stations between electoral officials and party representatives, though the commission’s success in resolving the vast majority suggests most issues were procedural rather than substantive.

With 106 complaints still open and the deadline for material objections looming, the commission faces pressure to process all outstanding issues while maintaining transparency and legal compliance before declaring final results within its seven-day legal timeframe.

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