Presiding officials booted after influencing voters

A presiding officer and his deputy were fired in Mthatha yesterday after being found to have influenced two special voters at a polling station on Tuesday.

Provincial elections commission head Thami Mraji said concerned residents at Maweni voting station in King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality informed the police on Tuesday.

“There was already a case opened with the police.”

Mraji said: “The facts satisfied me that those people would not be allowed to work at the voting station”.

Mraji said the two were replaced and yesterday the voting station operated normally.

In unrelated cases, operations at at least four voting stations in the province were delayed due to service delivery protests.

These include:

● Gcobani community Hall in Buffalo City’s Ward 16 where protesters blockaded roads making voting stations inaccessible to IEC officials;

● In Alfred Nzo’s Ward 16 in Ntabankulu, the voting station was inaccessible as protesters had dug trenches in the road towards it overnight. Mraji said even though police had since levelled all surfaces towards the voting station, “voters are not coming to the centre to vote due to service delivery protests at the surrounding villages”; and

● In Amahlathi, two voting stations opened late due to similar protests over service delivery.

Mraji said at Ndakana voting station, gates were locked and police had to force them to open to allow voters in. “At Zamulwazi in Amahlathi’s Ward 8, police had to escort our staff