The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) anticipates two factors to pose as challenges during the upcoming polls: higher voter participation and longer ballot papers.

The IEC believes the longer ballot papers and anticipated high voter turnout will result in long queues and a longer time taken to vote, count ballots and declare results.

Reporting to parliament's portfolio committee on home affairs, the IEC said it had contingency plans to address the expected challenges.

The first proposal was queue management which will include the use of a QR code a voter will scan to confirm correctness of the voting station and to get their sequence number on the voters' roll.

The commission also wants to use queue walkers to confirm if a voter is at the correct voting station.

The IEC has proposed the flighting of ballot orientation posters  at voting stations to help with the orientation of ballot papers. This will also help voters to identify a party or independent candidates to minimise the risk of miscast and/or spoilt ballots.

The commission reported on employing additional counting capacity which will mean a focus on recruiting additional capacity to help with counting and the completion of results slips.

It has also proposed the provisioning of a dummy result slip with identifiers for parties/candidates and in sequence of the ballot. This is done to reduce the risk of votes being transposed during the completion of result slips.

Regarding system enhancement and readiness, the IEC reported one national and nine provincial results operation centres will be established to enhance transparency.

Voter management device proactive maintenance is underway and will conclude in April 2024, a month before the elections on May 29.

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