Fellow Commissioners
Members of the Electoral Commission
Members of political parties
International and domestic observers
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to the National Results Operations centre and our first press conference for the 2014 national and provincial elections. Thank you for joining us and for your interest in the continuing democracy in our country. The Electoral Commission is confident of its readiness for the national and provincial elections on Wednesday. Everything is in place for the country’s 22 263 voting stations to open on schedule at 7am on Wednesday in anticipation of the arrival of 25.39 million voters who have registered to vote in the elections.
Of the 22 263 voting stations
- 20,736 voting stations are located at permanent venues.
- 1,495 voting stations are located at temporary venues, where tents will normally be required.
- 14,458 voting stations are located in schools.
- 1,591 voting stations are located in places of worship.
- 255 voting stations are located at tribal authority sites
- 77 voting stations are located in clinics / hospitals.
- there are also 32 mobile voting stations, required in far-flung voting districts where a vehicle moves between pre-determined stopping points to meet voters.
All materials have been distributed to provincial warehouses and on to local municipal secure storage facilities ready for delivery to voting stations early on Wednesday morning.
Of course, the most critical element are the ballot papers. For this election we have printed and distributed 62.8 million ballot papers:
- 31.4 million national ballot papers and
- 31.5 provincial ballot papers
The national ballot paper is the longest yet for an election in South Africa containing 29 contesting parties, this is 3 more than contested the 2009 national elections. The ballot printing required in excess of 500 tons of paper.
All other materials too have been distributed including:
- Over 220 000 ballot boxes
- 412,000 staff ID stickers
- 83,000 banners
- Nearly 119 000 voting compartments
- Over 100 000 Voting Station direction arrows
- 5,214 kilometers of voting station demarcation tape
-
Almost 60 000 stationery packs – there are 14 items in such a pack, and included in this were:
- Over 580 000 pens,
- 116 000 rulers
- 2,9 tons of twine (string)
- 2,9 kilometre of tape
- 4,65 million sheets of note paper
- 2,9 tons of rubber bands
- Over 58 000 permanent markers
- 11,7 tons of re-usable rubber putty (Prestik)
- And almost 3 million paper clips!
Security materials were handled separately from the mainstream of electoral material deliveries.
These security materials included:
- Nearly 120 000 security stamps (to mark ballot papers),
- Over 27 000 tamper-evident tapes (for sealing sensitive documents and boxes)
- 118 000 indelible ink pens (to mark voters’ fingers)
Voters are reminded that their ballot papers must be stamped with a security stamp by election officials when they are issued to the voter.
Unstamped ballot papers will not be counted. The certified voters’ roll for these elections contains 25,39 million names. The master voters roll which was printed for use in the voting stations on voting day, involved:
- Over 24 000 unique and separate segments of the voters’ roll ( to include voting centre sub-stations),
- totalling 1,8 million pages,
- requiring 8.6 tons of paper.
In terms of staff, we have filled 211 032 temporary positions and trained them all as voting station staff. Additionally there are some 4 563 area managers had been appointed to oversee voting activities within district areas and a further 1 200 permanent IEC staff. That makes almost 218 000 election officials.
Today’s start of special votes at voting stations and home visits has provided a good systems and readiness check which has gone very well. We are expecting just under 400 000 voters to cast special votes today and tomorrow– either at their voting station or by being visited by election officials in the case of voters who are disabled, pregnant or ill.
Special voting is taking place in all but 3 593 of the country’s voting districts where no special votes had been applied for – so this provides a very good “dry run” for Wednesday. Only some minor logistical issues were reported during the day.
Among these were high winds along the eastern seaboard in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal which had blown over tents erected as temporary voting stations overnight. These had been re-erected today.
Other incidents reported included the delayed opening of isolated voting stations due to delays of material deliveries, staff arrivals and some difficulties in gaining access to premises.
There were some isolated incidents of community protest action which were reported to the security structures and SA Police Service had been deployed in these areas to monitor the situation and to ensure the security of the voting process.
Meanwhile just over 12 000 marked ballots had arrived by courier from international voting stations. They are being reconciled against the list of voters who successfully notified the Chief Electoral Officer of their intention to vote outside the Republic.
The ballot papers will then be set aside in ballot boxes and securely stored until local voting stations close and the counting of all ballot papers starts at 9pm on 7 May. The votes from all international voting stations will be combined into a single international voting district.
Further ballots are expected to arrive today and tomorrow from other international destinations. It will only be known how many voters cast their votes at international voting stations last week once counting begins but approximately 27 000 voters were expected to vote abroad.
Voting stations open for all registered voters at 7am on Wednesday and voting will continue until 9pm at night.
Registered voters should vote at the voting station where they are registered and must have their green barcoded ID book, a temporary ID certificate or a new smart ID card in order to vote.
Voters can check their registration by SMSing their ID number of 32810 (cost R1) or calling 0800 11 8000.
Information on voting is also available on www.elections.org.za
Ladies and gentlemen you can report to the people and registered voters of South Africa that we are ready for to deliver yet another free, fair, credible and efficient election to our country.
We are ready to make them proud again and to follow in the glorious tradition of 20 years ago.
It is now up to the voters to make their choices. We appeal to all voters to respect the rights of others to choose a party of their choice. We appeal to political parties to respect the democratic process and to work with election officials and security services to ensure a peaceful and smooth election in all areas. I would like to thank all observers for their continued interest in the growth and development of democracy in our country. I would like to thank the security services for their work over the next few days to ensure a safe and secure election.
Then to the 218 000 election officials I wish you the very best for the next few days. Thank you for your commitment, your passion and your dedication to democracy in our country. I know that you will again live up to the highest reputation of excellence that South Africa and the world have come to expect from you. Finally to the voters to South Africa, our future as a country is in your hands.
This is your country. This is your moment. Vote and vote wisely.
Thank you.
