Final report of Stats-SA points to negligible potential of double voting
The final report of the Statistician-General into the use of Section 24A votes at a sample of voting stations in the 2019 National and Provincial Elections has revealed negligible risks of double voting.
The report was intended, in addition to the set of internal validations already applied by the Commission in determining the freeness and fairness of the election based on the likelihood of multiple voting.
This validation exercise was conducted independently by Statistics South Africa based on voting station result data from 1020 voting stations.
The selected voting stations provide a statistically reliable sample of voting around the country.
The sample size was selected to provide a very high degree of reliability with a 3 percent margin of error.
The analysis compared the occurrence of Section 24A votes in a voting district to the mean number of Section 24A votes in the ward. If the Section 24A votes in a voting district were significantly higher than instances of Section 24A votes in the ward this would be flagged as an indicator of potential deviation from the voting process.
The Commission is satisfied that the use of Section 24A voting was consistent with previous elections and showed a significant deviation from the pattern in only a tiny number of voting stations in the sample (13 out of 1020 or 1.27 percent). Even in these isolated instances, the Commission is satisfied that the trend compares favourably with previous voting patterns in voting stations with low registration levels.
The Electoral Commission wishes to once again express its sincere appreciation to the Statistician-General Mr Risenga Maluleke and his team at Statistics South Africa for the independent validation. The final report of the Statistician-General has been provided to all contesting political parties.
For media interviews with Electoral Commission officials please email requests to spokesperson@elections.org.za.
Enquiries:
Kate Bapela
Cell: 082 600 6386
