Protests, inclement weather, arrests and electricity disruptions all marred the start of the voting day on Monday, the IEC said.
presiding officer in the eThekwini metro was arrested after allegedly stuffing marked ballots into a ballot box.
In both the provinces, community members dug trenches across roads to deny IEC staff and voters access to voting stations.“The commission, with the assistance of municipalities, was able fill the trenches and anticipates that the voting stations will be open later today [in Eastern Cape],” said the commission’s CEO, Glen Mashinini.
“The commission commends South Africans for coming out, as they continue to, in huge numbers to vote. Many voting stations have reported strong turnout from early in the day with many voters already waiting to vote before the 7am opening. We continue to urge registered voters to make their way to voting stations.
“The commission will make an assessment in those station and look at how many people are there [affected areas] and if there’s a necessity to make any other calls it will be made later,” he said.In Gauteng, a Newzroom Afrika journalist was arrested at a voting station in Soweto. The commission could not provide the exact circumstances of the incident, which was also confirmed by SAPS.
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