IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo. (Tebogo Letsie/City Press)
- The IEC said the two-day special voting across the country went smoothly.
- Over the past two days, voters who requested special ballots have cast their ballots.
- On Wednesday, polls will open at 7am and close at 9pm.
Nearly one million South Africans voted in the first two days of special voting.
Millions more are expected to flock to vote at 23,292 polling stations across the country.
However, the special voting day was marred by several problems, most notably when people claiming to be party officials tampered with ballot boxes in Mpumalanga as they were being transported to a storage area.
South African Electoral Commission (IEC) chief executive Si Mamabolo said at a press conference on Tuesday night that two people had been arrested and another remained at large.
Speaking on the first two days of the special voting, Mamabolo said voting had taken place at 22,626 polling stations and through home visits over the past two days.
“As of this afternoon, 937,144 voters are reported to have completed the voting process. This figure is much higher than in previous elections and bodes well for voter turnout. [on Wednesday].
“Equally pleased with the diligence of our election staff who conducted home visits to voters' homes and detention centres, otherwise these voters would not have been able to record their political choice,” he added.
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Mamabolo said one of the biggest challenges the IEC faced was making a local incident into a national issue without context.
Adding to this, he said, “When you have people from different backgrounds, i.e. IEC officials, there will be problems.”
Mamabolo said there was clearly a planned attempt to distort the election results even before the election took place.
“South Africans have entrusted the IEC with their right to vote and the commission will remain resolute in safeguarding the integrity of these elections,” he added.
Voters who were unable to cast a special ballot can still vote at the polling place where they were registered on Wednesday.
“The committee remains concerned about the activities of the committee and incidents of misconduct against election officials.”
“We therefore urge all South Africans, including political party members, supporters and members of the public, to enable the Electoral Officer to discharge his responsibilities.”
“The committee thanks law enforcement agencies for their assistance and continued protection of the electoral process,” Mamabolo said.
He said the lessons and experience gained from the two-day special vote were valuable and would be used to improve Wednesday's operations.
“The Commission urges all remaining 26 million voters to go to the polls tomorrow.”
“The network of 23,292 polling stations will open at 7 am and close at 9 pm.”
“It is important to emphasise that voters who turn up at the polling station at 9pm will be allowed to vote and will not be turned away. We reiterate that voters must vote where they are registered,” Mamabolo said.
About 360,000 voters were approved to vote outside their precincts.
Mamabolo is hopeful that voter turnout will be higher than in the 2019 general elections, where voter turnout was 66.05%.
“If we get above 70 percent, we'll give you a bonus,” he joked.