Voting Stations Close As South Africa Concludes Election Day

The voting stations in South Africa are closed following the conclusion of election day on May 29.

There were some areas, especially metropolitan hubs, where long lines of voters were seen as millions of South Africans came out to exercise their right to vote. Following the closure of voting stations, Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo addressed the media on Wednesday evening.

He explained how the commission organized the long queues with the help of the counting officers.

"Part of the measures that we implemented...was to call on the counting officers, who were due to join later. But we called them earlier to assist with dealing with the queues," Mamabolo said, SA News reported.

He added, "Ballots are counted at the voting station where they are cast. Party agents and independent candidate agents and observers will monitor the entire counting process as well as the results compilation."

The Chief Electoral Officer further said that the sealed ballot boxes will be opened and emptied in front of everyone at the voting station, noting that each ballot will be unfolded face down and checked for the Electoral Commission's security stamp.

All valid ballots will be sorted by color, representing different levels of the election. The ballots will then be sorted into piles based on votes for each party or candidate. They will be bundled in groups of 100 until the count is confirmed.

The Presiding Officer will complete the results slips, and party agents, as well as agents for independent candidates, will sign the slips to confirm the accuracy of the count for their party or candidate.

After this process, the slips will be taken to the Commission's local office.

"At the local office of the IEC where the local party structures will be present, it will first be scanned into the results system to create an image of that result. It will then be available for political parties that are [at the Results Operations Centre]," he explained.

He added, "After that, it will be captured... and after capturing then it will be audited. Once the captured result is audited and there are no exceptions related to that result, you will begin to see the votes reflecting on the leader board."

Mamabolo noted that the results might take longer to announce as now, there are three ballot papers instead of two.