Members of political parties,
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen.
I am pleased to report that voting is proceeding smoothly at all 22 263 voting stations around South Africa. South African voters continue to come out in their vast numbers to participate in this fifth national and provincial election.
The issues which had affected voting at some isolated voting stations early today have all been resolved and voting is proceeding in these areas.
The most pressing challenge we are facing at the moment is an extremely high turnout at voting stations – especially those in urban and metro areas where long queues continue to be experienced at a number of voting stations.
It should be remembered that we have the highest number of voters registered in South Africa’s history for this national and provincial election – 25.39 million. This is about 2.2 million more than were registered for the 2009 elections.
While we have increased the number of voting stations since 2009 by over 10%, many of the additional voting stations were introduced in rural areas to decrease the distance which voters were required to travel to vote.
We have introduced voting centres with multiple voting streams in urban and metro areas for this election and this is something which we may have to increase in future elections based on the large volumes we are experiencing today.
The high turnout at some stations and the long queues are also having an impact on voters seeking to vote at voting stations where they are not registered. They are able to do this in a national and provincial election according to Section 24 A.
The impact of this, however, has been to put pressure on our planning and logistics and we have received reports of some stations requiring additional materials.
We are pleased to report that our contingency planning in this regard is holding up well and materials are able to be relatively quickly provided to voting stations where they are needed.
With respect to the voting stations which experienced delays earlier today, we are pleased to report that they are all open – with the last station opening at about 14h50 today in Maruleng in Limpopo.
The Electoral Commission will be meeting later today to assess the situation at these and other voting stations which have experienced high volumes.
Voting continues until 21h00 tonight at all stations – and we remind voters that any voter who is at a voting station at 21h00 tonight will be allowed to vote.
