CAPE TOWN - The Mpumalanga SAPS have been asked by political parties to investigate allegations of vote rigging, after the discovery of a batch of ballot papers stuffed in a refuse plastic bag and unsealed ballot boxes in Bushbuckridge.
The IEC stationery, which included ballot papers and unsealed ballot boxes, were on Tuesday morning found inside a Quantum Toyota taxi, which was allegedly not escorted by SAPS officers.
The EFF, Better Residents Association (BRA) and African People’s Convention have lodged complaints against the implicated IEC staff for allegedly tampering with ballot boxes.
On Wednesday, parties expressed outrage at the incident and called into question the credibility of the 2021 municipal polls conducted by the IEC.
Provincial SAPS spokesperson, Brigadier Selvy Mohlala, said a case opened by the parties at Thulamahashe police station was for “contravention of Section 70 (2)(a)of Act 27/2000 infringement of secrecy”.
Parties alleged that presiding officers at an IEC office in ward 16 came to deliver the ballot boxes from different voting stations using a taxi whose driver was wearing an ANC T-shirt, which “caught the attention of other parties”. Mohlala said: “They (political party representatives) approached the taxi and found that they (IEC officials) had loaded ballot boxes for five voting stations. They discovered that the seals of eight ballot boxes had been tampered with”.
He said a municipal election official “confirmed that the boxes were tampered with upon arrival and that it is not allowed to use one common transport for different stations, and the driver is not allowed to wear any political identity clothing”.
Police investigation into the matter was under way.
Cape Times