Some political parties have lodged objections with the Electoral Commission of SA regarding what they describe as irregularities in the vote-capturing process. (Gallo Images/Sydney Seshibedi)

• Some political parties have lodged objections with the Electoral Commission of SA regarding what they describe as irregularities in the vote-capturing process.
• The parties claim some of their votes have not been captured correctly.
• They are calling for a recount, with counting at 98.77% by noon on Saturday.

Several political parties have lodged objections with the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) amid claims that the results on display at results operations centres (ROCs) across the country do not reflect how South Africans voted in the 2024 general election. 

The parties are gathered at the national ROC in Midrand, Johannesburg, monitoring the results. 

Calling for a recount, their leaders allege that not all their votes were correctly captured at voting districts because the numbers they had received from their party agents painted a different picture.

The ACDP, FF Plus, UDM and ACT are among the aggrieved parties who have spoken to News24. 

UDM deputy president Nqabayomzi Kwankwa said the ANC, which was at 40.42% nationally at midday on Saturday, should have performed far worse.

He added:

He said that UDM secretary-general Yongama Zigebe and other “sister opposition” parties objected on Friday night.

“We are part of the parties that requested a recount in the Western Cape, and in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, because there were several irregularities.

“A close friend of mine who was in Tsakane said when they had counted 378 votes, what showed on the system was 78 votes,” Kwankwa alleged.

He also questioned the auditing process. 

“Whoever is capturing the results can input something completely different. Who is auditing? What are these auditors auditing? There is no auditing process here. It’s clear that the elections have been stolen by them capturing the results alone, parties have actually dropped the ball in not allowing themselves to oversee the capturing process, which is where the manipulation happens,” Kwankwa claimed.

ATM president Vuyo Zungula reiterated Kwankwa’s view.

“Every results slip our party agents have indicated, we have taken it up with the IEC, and we hope they can resolve this.

“We definitely got more votes. I can mention one ward in Ekurhuleni where we got 57 votes, but what was captured on the system was 19, which on its own is an indication of the number on the system being significantly lower than what we actually got in terms of the vote. If you take that one amount and think about the other examples and other issues, it should take our numbers significantly higher than that,” Zungula said. 

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FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald added: “In politics, they say cowboys don’t cry, but I am not satisfied with the results. There were too many mistakes. There were thousands and thousands of people who were disenfranchised, and it is not acceptable for the electoral commission to say, ‘but it is the system’.

“It is not the first time we have experienced these sorts of problems. In 2021, we experienced exactly the same problems. I’m not happy. But it is not a matter of cowboys crying now, we don’t cry.

“When you have an election where it is on a knife’s edge, they should have ensured that these small, little things, shouldn’t have happened.”

Groenewald said his party had complained in the Western Cape.

He pointed out that if the IEC wants to run elections professionally, there should not be any technical issues.

“And they can’t blame load shedding this time,” he said. 

The IFP’s Narend Singh said his party had also laid a few complaints. 

“And that is because some sheets were not captured correctly from the written form to the computer. But nothing significant, you know, nothing that we think is going to have an impact on the results,” Singh said.

Former ANC secretary-general-turned-ACT-president Ace Magashule was seen having an informal conversation with IEC boss Sy Mamabolo, in which he claimed the election had been “rigged”.

On Saturday, Magashule also called for a recount because he believed ACT was on its way to winning the election in the Free State. He said they were considering legal action.

“Recounting is going to expose the fraud; that is why we are appealing for a recount, and that is why the IEC is going to be careful. If you give us a recount, you are going to open a can of worms, and that is going to reflect on the integrity. We want free and fair elections. 

“We have evidence, we have footage, we have election results slips. We are talking facts,” Magashule claimed, although he did not share the evidence he claimed to have. 

Briefing the media on Saturday afternoon, IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya said the commission was pleased that the results systems remained functional and credible throughout the process.

He said the IEC had agreed to a request to extend the objections to 18:00 on Saturday and added that every concern raised would be looked at and considered in the process of assuring integrity of the elections. 

Moepya said that auditors were assisting the IEC to ensure it delivered fair and free elections.