The Democratic Alliance has been given permission by the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa to use its own seal on ballot boxes during the upcoming general election.

The Mail & Guardian reports that the seal is intended to help protect the integrity of the results after a number of reports about misplaced ballot boxes in Gauteng surfaced during the 2014 national elections.

At the time, the IEC admitted that the procedure set out to handle the ballot boxes after the votes were counted had not been followed, leading to claims that the province’s votes were tampered with.

The IEC confirmed that the Electoral Act allows any political party to apply their own seal to a ballot box, with the DA also permitted to break their own seals during the vote-counting process.

Elections

The latest poll by Ipsos shows that around 61% of eligible South Africans would put their voice behind the ANC.

Meanwhile, only 16% would go with the DA, and 9% with the EFF.

However, when adjusting for predicted voter turnout (80%) and only counting those who say they will vote, Ipsos’ numbers show that a lower turnout is better for the smaller parties.

Nationally, assuming a medium-sized turnout of voters on 8 May, Ipsos predicts the ANC will still get 61% of the vote, but the DA would jump to 18% and the EFF to 10%.

In the 2014 election, the ANC secured 62.2% of the vote, with the DA getting 22% and EFF just over 6%. While the poll shows the ANC losing out slightly, it’s the DA that is the biggest loser (-4 percentage points) and the EFF the biggest gainer (+4 percentage points).

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Source: businesstech