Vote Counting Almost Completed in South Africa's Elections

The counting of the ballot papers following South Africa's third democratic general elections on Wednesday has been completed except in two metropolitan councils, said Independent Electoral Commission Chief Electoral Officer, Advocate Pansy Tlakula.

Adv Tlakula said today, (Thursday) that these areas were Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metropolitan councils in the Gauteng province.

Addressing members of the local and international media at the Results Operations Centre in Pretoria, Adv Tlakula outlined the process once voting has been completed.

"Results are counted; they are then captured at the Municipal Electoral Offices. They are then audited there and are then sent to the Results Operations Centre as provisional results until declared by the Commission," she said.

So far, she added, 58 percent of both national and provincial results had been captured and 39 percent had been audited. Adv Tlakula said at the rate in which the results are being counted, captured and audited, most of the results will be in by mid-day on Friday.

There was only one incident to report on:

"Two (2) ballot boxes were found dumped. One was at Ixopo municipality and the other in the Msinga municipality, both in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. Criminal charges have been laid against the area manager and the presiding officers," she explained.

The nature of complaints received so far were manageable and promptly attended to.

"We did not hesitate to intervene where we were called upon to do so, or wherever issues came to our attention. Where necessary, reports were made to the South African Police Service," Adv Tlakula said.

Speaking at the same briefing, IEC Chairperson Dr Brigalia Bam said the successful completion of counting, with the exception of Ekurhuleni confirmed that South Africa's electoral democracy had indeed matured.

She commended political parties for the manner they conducted themselves throughout the process by adhering to the Electoral Code of Conduct, saying together with the voters and the IEC staff, they were the real stars of elections.

She said the IEC was working with speed and vigour to be able to announce the results quite soon.

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Issued by: Electoral Commission
15 April 2004