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Motorist finds ballot papers on road

LOST AND FOUND: Jakkie Geldenhuys and his wife, Hanline, with about 400 ballot papers they found along the R40 road between White River and Nelspruit at the weekend. 20/04/2009. Pic. Alfred Moselakgomo. © Sowetan.
LOST AND FOUND: Jakkie Geldenhuys and his wife, Hanline, with about 400 ballot papers they found along the R40 road between White River and Nelspruit at the weekend. 20/04/2009. Pic. Alfred Moselakgomo. © Sowetan.

Alfred Moselakgomo

A shocked motorist found a full pack of ballot papers that are supposed to be used during tomorrow's voting scattered along a busy road in Mpumalanga.

But the Independent Electoral Commission does not suspect any foul play and claims the papers may have fallen out of the vehicle that was transporting them.

Jakkie Geldenhuys, of Castor Bridge Estate in White River, was travelling to town from Nelspruit with his wife at the weekend when they noticed papers scattered along the R40 Main Road between Nelspruit and White River.

Geldenhuys said the police, however, were unsure about the action to be taken and were unwilling to attend to the matter.

He said he has kept the ballot papers until he was contacted by an authorised IEC official to whom the ballot papers could be handed over on receipt of a written acknowledgement.

The IEC's provincial electoral office in Nelspruit was also notified about the incident.

The DA said this incident was evidence of gross negligence of officials on the eve of one of the most important elections in the history of South Africa and has called on the IEC to do an immediate audit of all ballot papers and to explain to the voters how this came about.

DA leader Anthony Benadie said if ballot papers can be lost "so easily" then the secret mark rubber stamps and control sheets "are probably also in the hands of a number of unauthorised people".

IEC spokesperson Steve Ngwenya said they had reported the matter to the police and would know what happened when police investigations are concluded.

"At the moment we suspect that these ballot papers may have fallen out of the bakkie that was transporting them," said Ngwenya.

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