Celani Sikhakhane
The former chair of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has blamed the commission for failing to put in place proper security to avoid voting fraud.
Terry Tselane was speaking to Enca after a teacher from uMlazi in Durban was convicted of contravention of the Electoral Act for voting 24 times while she was a presiding officer during local government elections last year.
Tselane said that the arrest of Nomusa Gabuza has exposed IEC’s failure to deal with fraud during the elections.
“Gabuza’s case is just the tip of an iceberg. It is something that should not shock anyone because the fraud has been there for a very long time. This poses a challenge for the IEC to tighten its security in the voting stations to avoid this fraud in the future,” said Tselane.
Gabuza told the uMlazi Magistrate’s Court on Thursday last week before her sentencing that she went to the voting station early. The voting station is in a school where she also works as a teacher.
She revealed that while she was alone she cast 24 votes in favour of her political party.
Unfortunately her actions were caught by a party agent who checked all the ballot boxes.
Gabuza’s actions were in contravention of the Local Government Municipal Electoral Act of 2000.
This is not the first time the IEC has faced accusations of unethical behaviour.
In 2013 the Electoral Commission had to nullify the by-election of the Inkosi Mtubatuba Local Municipality after it was revealed that all the voting stations held details of people who were transported from other areas to vote in favour of the ANC.
Those people were given local addresses but were later caught when they failed to show knowledge of the areas they claimed to have come from.
During the last year’s local government elections, the DA complained to the IEC that its voting devices were not working in areas that were predominantly DA supporting.
