The budget cuts that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) suffered in the lead up to the 2024 National Elections was clear to see in Paarl on May 29.
In Mountain View, Paarl, a combination of the technical problems and a temporary structure that could only accommodate a couple of voters at the same time saw people queue for a very, very long time at this polling station.
Some of the voters in the queue described the structure as a “shack”, as they snaked around the barren field to try and cast their vote.
Mountain View, a large voting district in Paarl, where some people were in the queue for more than 4 hours in the hot sun. IEC budget cuts meant people had to queue to vote in a "shack" ... pic.twitter.com/Bo7UGcYr8B
Alexia Muller, who joined the queue at 10.30am, managed to cast her vote just before 3pm.
“I’m very upset. I queued for more than four hours in the sun. It’s not right. There were a lot of people here and only a three-by-nine shack to accommodate everyone,” Muller told Radio KC, a community radio station in the Drakenstein Municipality.
“When I started to queue at 10.30am, I got people here who were already here from 7pm.”
Some voters gave up and decided came back later, only to find more people in the queue. The polling station also went beyond the 9pm deadline.
Many political parties slammed the IEC’s performance and organisation during Wednesday’s election, with some people reportedly queuing for 10 hours because of the technical and logistical issues.
IEC chief executive Sy Mamabolo said some of the delays could be attributed to the malfunctioning of some voter management devices at various polling stations.
“The issue of the voter management devices, which in turn caused delays, was resolved through the use of the physical voters’ roll which is also a legislated tool used by the commission to manage the elections,” said Mamabolo.
IOL