Confusion after aged are turned away for special votes because names are ‘missing from IEC list’

A DA candidate for ward 23 in Ekurhuleni has asked how free and fair the local government elections will be after hundreds of residents in retirement villages in the area were not able to cast their special votes this weekend.

Andrè du Plessis asked this question after hundreds of elderly residents in three retirement villages in the Benoni area were denied the right to cast their special votes.

This is despite Du Plessis registering about 400 residents with the Electoral Commission (IEC) three weeks ago.

Du Plessis said the IEC had planned to be at the first station, Our Lady Fatima Church, for special votes from 9am but arrived late. He said there were 250 people who were not on the IEC list but who had registered for the special vote. They could not cast their votes.

“A lot of people are disgruntled,” Du Plessis said.

In another retirement village, the IEC’s list had seven names out of 52 residents who had registered to cast the special vote. Only those seven were able to vote.

 A resident at the Norton Park Retirement Village, Sabine Dresen, detailed how they could not cast their special votes on Saturday and Sunday.

She said the village was put down for special voting and IEC officials were going to the village on Saturday for all residents to vote.

“We all had registered to vote at our village. They didn’t have the correct list with all our names so we couldn’t vote.

“The ballot box was an open carton without any seals or names on it,” Dresen alleged.

She said the IEC officials told the residents to come back on Sunday at 9am to cast their votes.

“Then we got a message to say they were not coming back and we were to go the Lady Fatima church to vote there.

“We got there and were told by the IEC again that our names were not on the list  though our names were on the list the DA had. They were sitting outside,” Dresen said.

She said she was worried whether she would be able to cast her vote on Monday, considering that her name and those of others were not on the IEC list.

Du Plessis said one of his party agents had applied for a special vote which was approved by the IEC, but she could not vote on Sunday because the IEC  did not have her name on its list of people who were approved for special voting.

The IEC could not immediately respond to these complaints as it needed more time to investigate. Their comment will be added as soon as it is received.

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