Cape Town — The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) was forced to clarify the confusion over the update of the Elections Results Dashboard last week.
The IEC said in a statement that all registered voters received two voting ballots for the National Assembly, one for a national vote and another for a regional vote.
“It was one national ballot and one regional ballot, while the third ballot paper was for provincial elections. Just over 16 million registered voters cast their vote across the nine regional and one national ballot.” IEC spokesperson, Kate Bapela, said.
“The Electoral Act prescribes that for the calculation of compensatory seats, both national compensatory ballots (N) and regional ballots (R) are taken into account. Hence the demotion of N and R on the results dashboard,” she added.
The IEC said it was done to ensure the allocation of compensatory seats take into account the regional strength of political parties, thus meeting the proportional representation demanded by the Constitution.
[MEDIA STATEMENT]
Electoral Commission clarifies Elections Results Dashboard update following seat allocation pic.twitter.com/Xu9AV68lIx— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) June 17, 2024
According to The Citizen, the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party led the charge to challenge the IEC after large increases in the figures on the national results section. MK party leader Jacob Zuma held a media briefing on Sunday to clarify his party’s stance on the Government of National Unity (GNU) and said the party dismissed any notion that the elections were free and fair.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: X/@IECSouthAfrica
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Matthew Petersen
