South Africa: Over 30 000 vote in by-elections

Ballots were cast by 30 565 of the 87 957 people registered to vote in 10 municipal by-elections around the country, according to results released by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Thursday.A total of 411 spoilt ballots were recorded in nine of the 10 wards in by-elections on Wednesday. Citizens in only one ward - Thaba Chweu in Mpumalanga - did not spoil a single ballot.

The highest number of votes cast was in Ward 43 in Cape Town where 5 670 of the 18 889 registered voters made their mark.This was followed by Ward 48 in the eThekwini Metro where 5 631 of the 15 597 registered voters cast their vote.In Ward 35 in Cape Town 5 299 out of 16 787 registered voters visited the polls.Ward 49 in the Ethekwini metro saw 5 124 of the 15 912 registered voters casting a ballot.Of the 4 420 registered voters in Saldanha Bay, 2 362 people made their mark.

On the Hibiscus Coast in KwaZulu-Natal, 2 064 of the 5 201 voters cast their vote.Fewer votes were cast in Greater Taung (1 472 out of 3 859 registered voters), Lephalale in Limpopo (1 359 out of 4 310), Kgatelopele in the Northern Cape (968 out of 1 783), and Thaba Chweu in Mpumalanga (616 out of 1 199 registered voters).

Spoilt ballots
The highest number of spoilt votes was recorded in Ward 48 of KwaZulu-Natal's eThekwini metro with 116 spoilt ballots, followed by its Ward 49 with 102.In Cape Town, Ward 35 had 51 spoilt votes, followed by the nearby Ward 43 with 46 spoilt votes.Greater Taung recorded 37 spoilt votes, and the Hibiscus Coast had 19. Closely behind was Lephalale in Limpopo and Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape with 15 spoilt votes each.At the bottom was Kgatelopele in the Northern Cape with 10 spoilt votes.

The 10 wards were contested by 37 candidates, representing 13 political parties and four independent candidates.Four of the previous councillors had died, three had resigned, and three were expelled by their parties.The ANC won six of the wards and the DA secured the remaining four.A spoilt vote is a ballot cast that cannot be counted, usually because the paper was filled in in a manner that made the choice unclear.



Source: News24