‘Carelessness’ results in dismissals of KZN voting station staff

“Careless” electoral staff were dismissed after ballot papers were incorrectly collected during special voting in Folweni‚ south of Durban‚ and at Dundee in KwaZulu-Natal.

“I confirm that the staff were dismissed for misadministration of ballot papers. The ballot paper was supposed to be placed in an unmarked envelope and then into an A4 envelope. They didn’t do that. They put the ballot paper directly into the ballot box‚” said KwaZulu-Natal Independent Electoral Commission spokesman Thabani Ngwira on Wednesday.

“I can’t say whether it was deliberate. It was just carelessness.”

Ngwira said new staff were deployed to the two stations ahead of voting on Wednesday.

 “We had trained 16% more than usual for this election‚ so we have deployed them. The dismissal of the staff has had no impact on voting today (Wednesday)‚” he said.

 Ngwira said there were no reports of irregularities at other voting stations in the province.

 “Everything is running smoothly.”

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