With just hours left to go before voting day, the Electoral Commission is ready for the seventh National and Provincial Elections.
"Our clarion call to all South Africans is - let's go out in huge numbers and vindicate our democratic right to vote," Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the Electoral Commission, Sy Mamabolo, said on Tuesday at a briefing in Midrand.
The commission applauded political parties and independent candidates for relatively peaceful campaigns, adding that the spirit of tolerance and forbearance must be taken on Election Day tomorrow.
"It is time now for all of us to work together to ensure that these elections are free, fair, safe, and that the outcome reflects the will of the South African electorate."
Tuesday marked the second day of the casting of special votes at 22 626 voting stations and home visits over the past two days with 937 144 voters having been processed.
The commission said it would use the "lessons and experiences" over the last two days of special voting to further refine operations to positively impact on voter experience on Election Day.
"The commission urges all the remaining 26 million eligible voters to go out and cast their votes tomorrow."
It reminded voters that its network of 23 292 voting stations will open for voting at 07h00 and close at 21h00.
"It is important to emphasise that eligible voters who will be at the voting station at 21h00 will be allowed to vote and not turned away."
In addition, voters must vote where they are registered.
"The only exception to the general rule is that a voter may vote outside of their registered voting district only after notifying the CEO. Notifications in this regard closed on May 17. Approximately 360 000 voters have been approved to vote outside their voting districts."
The commission reminded all eligible voters of the following:
- Bring along valid South African identity document.
- Each voter will be verified on the voters roll and marked with ink on the left thumb.
- Each voter will receive three ballot papers: the national, regional, and provincial ballot papers. Voters are reminded to indicate their choices with one mark on each ballot (voters who have given pre-notification to vote at a voting stations outside the province in which they are registered will receive only the national ballot).
- Each ballot paper will be validated with a stamp on the reverse.
- All three ballots must be deposited in the ballot box at the voting station.
- It is prohibited for a voter to take a photograph of their marked ballot paper. This arrangement is necessary to protect the secrecy of the choice of voters and to avoid voters being coerced or unduly induced into making political choices.
The commission called on registered voters to check the correctness of their voting station through the following channels:
- By SMS ID number to 32810
- Using voting station finder application on website
- Contact centre on 080011800.
- The IEC APP downloadable from Apple and Google app stores.
Load shedding
The commission said that load shedding is not expected on voting day.
"Furthermore, Eskom has given assurances that there are no plans for scheduled maintenance work or load shedding in the period around voting day.
"Instances of power outages must be reported to Eskom in the normal course to enable effective responses."
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Identity documents
For voters who may need identity documents, the Department of Home Affairs will operate all its offices between 07h00 to 21h00 to facilitate collection of identity documents and the issuance of temporary identification certificates.
The commission said it was confident that all preparations are in place for free, fair elections.
"A key aspect of our preparations included engaging with various stakeholders which includes political parties, independent candidates, the media, security and government structures at all levels, civil society organizations, community organizations, and the voters of South Africa. A number of state entities and municipalities are supporting the logistics of elections."
