Several parties in the Western Cape have lodged an urgent objection with the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) during the objection period, which closes at 21:00 to be extended. (Lisalee Solomons/News24)

• Several political parties in the Western Cape are angry at the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s vote handling.
• On Friday evening, these parties filed an urgent objection with the IEC, requesting an extension to the objection period ending at 21:00.
• The commission’s provincial head, Michael Hendrickse, said parties are allowed to raise objections in accordance with the Electoral Act.
• Track the latest results via our Elections Map.

Several political parties in the Western Cape are fuming over the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) handling of votes. 

On Friday evening, parties lodged an urgent objection with the IEC for the objection period, which closed at 21:00, to be extended. 

Sixteen parties signed a letter to the province’s IEC, citing several voting discrepancies in some voting districts. 

The parties said they raised concerns during a meeting with representatives on Friday evening, which they claim had not been responded to.

“We jointly request condonation until 48 hours after the last ballot paper has been scanned and submitted for verification,” the letter stated.

The parties raised concerns about the handling of votes and said that staff were not equipped to handle the number of voters.  

FOLLOW LIVE | LIVE: Several political parties in the Western Cape file objection with IEC over votes

Freedom Front Plus MPL Peter Marais told journalists: “I want to know what they did with the millions from national government to ensure that staff are efficiently trained. If this is the way they are going to run elections, we are not far from our own Arab Spring.”

Marais added: 

Al-Jamah’s Shameemah Salie said: “The IEC says they cannot give us many answers. We have been lodging complaints and many of these complaints have not been responded to.” 

Earlier on Friday, the EFF in the province lodged a complaint with the IEC over 100 missing votes.

It claimed that on the results slip, 156 votes were to be credited to them but the 1 was removed, giving them 56 votes instead of 156.

The ANC has complained about similar situations.

On Friday, the EFF’s Unathi Ntame had a heated discussion with IEC provincial head Michael Hendrickse.

Hendrickse told News24 that under the legislation, which he said was explained to all the political parties, parties are entitled to make an objection by 21:00 on Friday. 

“As was also explained, if they miss the 21:00 deadline on Friday, the Electoral Act also allows them to make a case out for condonation for late submission.

“That was also explained to the various political parties. Obviously, the result that we have here, which is reflected at our results centre, is not the final result because, as I told the parties, the final result is determined by the commission sitting in Tshwane,” he said. 

Hendrickse said he had explained to the parties that there was a statutory process to follow if they had any issues or objections.

He stressed:

He added that the IEC in the province could not advise on what time there would be a briefing on Saturday after the media briefing was called off at the last minute on Friday night. 

Hendrickse explained the briefing was called off because he needed to deal with the matters that the political parties were raising.