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217 Cape metro voting booths are unable to open on time · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Most people going to vote on Wednesday, but special votes
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: should have been cast today. It is still underway. So
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: there are many people either making their way to the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: polls or making their way home, having voted. But in
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the Western Cape, particularly in the Cape Town metro area,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: serious problems today. They were unable to open on time.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It was something that affected 217 voting stations and to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: find out what happened and Where we stand right now,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Lindsay Dentling, our EWN parliamentary colleague, joins us now. Lindsay, welcome.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: What actually happened and how long was the delay, for example?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Good afternoon, John. Well, as far as we understand it,
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: there is still some delay. We have two versions of
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: what has been happening, first here in the Western Cape
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: and then the National Office also offering a perspective. But
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: in the main, John, as you pointed out, only 10
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: wards of the two of the sorry, of the 116 in.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: The Cape Town Metro were able to open.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: At 8 o'clock. And in the main, ballots have just
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: not arrived on time. From the Western Cape, we gleaned.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: That there may have been some kind.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Of delay in getting those ballots to the stations, and
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: that might have involved the printing company, but they're not
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: quite laying all the blame on the printing company. They've
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: just said that they had been working hard with the
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: printing company yesterday And unfortunately, these ballots didn't make it
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: to the polling stations by the time doors opened this morning.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: But from the national officials, we learn that printing only
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: concluded last night. And as we speak, our understanding is
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: that all those ballots that had not yet been delivered
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: by the opening time this morning are now at the
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: central distribution facility. And what they are trying to do
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: is make sure before they distribute those ballots, that they
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: contain all the security features, that they are bundled correctly
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: in the books and make up the booklets that they
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: distribute to the stations. So our understanding is that they're
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: progressing in trying to get ballots to the stations, but
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: that they are still... several sections around the city, and
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: it's not just confined to one area.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: It's literally across the.
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  Speaker 3: City, reports coming in, people calling our radio stations to
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: report where the hiccups have been. But it seems that
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: those who have waited an hour or two have been
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: successful eventually in being able to cast their vote.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Lindsay, I mean, some people might say, well, this might
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: be due to the constitutional court decision and, you know,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: delays in the process as a consequence of My understanding, though,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: was none of the areas at issue in the ANC's
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: application affected the Western Cape. Could this be, though, because
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: in the aftermath of that decision, other parties were given
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to bring candidates in who had previously been rejected,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and some of those were from the Western Cape? I mean,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: is there a connection between the two?
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: As I said, there's no specifics being told. were still
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: being printed last night. But certainly, yes, John, an inference
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: that I was also drawing from the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer,
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Mashecho Shaburi, from this afternoon's briefing, mentioning the fact that
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: that court case had stalled the printing of some 33
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: million ballots and saying that the consequence of that didn't
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: obviously just affect the ANC, it affected more than 30
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: other parties. And I think they had to wait and
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: give those parties an opportunity to indicate that whether they
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: wanted to make changes. But yes, you are correct. Originally,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: that ruling, as far as it pertained to the ANC,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: did not affect the Western Cape. And I should also
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: point out that our understanding is from the IEC here
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: in the Western Cape that this particular problem has not
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: affected the outlying states. uh areas it really seems to
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: be confined to the metro and it's quite severe in
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: the metro um so it might be that they decided
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: to make sure that the outlying areas have their ballots
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: first of course.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: We don't know where these printing companies are and that
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: they would um you know work their.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Way towards the city but we expect updates both on
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: the national and the provincial level a little later this afternoon.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: But as I said, my understanding from officials are that as.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: The ballots are being prepared, they are being sent off
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: to these.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Voting stations that are still waiting for ballots, John.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Lindsay Dentler, thank you very much. An early problem in
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the delivery of special voting. Let's hope this is dealt
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: with swiftly and that everything on Wednesday goes way smoother.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: 25 minutes past three.