Protesters keep five Eastern Cape voting stations closed

Five voting stations in the Eastern Cape remain closed.

This was revealed by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) shortly after 12pm on Wednesday.

At about 9am, nine stations had not yet opened to allow voters to make their marks.

Voting started at 7am in some of the 4,686 voting stations across the province, but by midday, Nokhatshile SPS in Winnie Madikizela-Mandela municipality, Buhlambo in Ntabankulu, Maggie in Port St Johns, Sidanda in Nyandeni and Mavundleni in King Sabata Dalindyebo remained closed.

This was due to community protests.

A total of 32 voting stations didn’t open on time.

Co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Zolile Williams said: “We commend our teams for good work done to open the stations for our people to cast their votes.

“Let our law enforcement structures stamp their authority without fear or favour to secure free and fair elections. No-one should be allowed to prevent communities from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

“We condemn barricading of roads and digging trenches to raise community concerns. Government has a plethora of public participation mechanisms accessible to everyone to resolve service delivery concerns.

“We have a long way to go in our quest towards a better life for all as water and rural road infrastructure provisioning remains our priority areas in a province as rural as the Eastern Cape.

“Equally important is that the intimidation of IEC staff must end.”

DispatchLIVE