The by-elections taking place in 95 wards across 55 municipalities in all nine provinces have kicked off on a good note, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said.<\/p>\n
Voting in almost all the voting stations started at 7am and is expected to close at 9pm at 455 voting stations, 233 (51%) of which are in schools, 65 (14%) are in places of worship and 157 (35%) are in other structures.<\/p>\n
The results of the by-elections are expected to be announced by midday on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The by-elections are being contested by 40 political parties, with a total of 444 candidates certified as contestants. This includes 19 independent candidates.<\/p>\n
Of the candidates, 305 (69%) are male and 139 (31%) are female.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the Chief Electoral Officer of the IEC, Sy Mamabolo, said everything was ready and in place for the by-elections.<\/p>\n
The by-elections are the first to be held since election activities were suspended in March this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are a \u201ccatch-up\u201d of all by-elections postponed between March and September.<\/p>\n
Mamabolo said a total of 609 133 voters are on the certified voters\u2019 rolls for the various by-elections.<\/p>\n
A total of 23 008 individuals (3.7%) applied and were approved to cast special votes. Of these, 12 218 are via home visits and 10 790 will cast special votes at voting stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Electoral Commission is confident that the by-elections will be free, fair and safe – as long as all stakeholders conform to the strict safety measures and protocols put in place at voting stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtective equipment, including masks, gloves and face shields, have been procured for election staff at voting stations and for conducting home visits for those voters who are physically disabled, infirm or pregnant,\u201d Mamabolo said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Electoral Commission said it is confident that all logistical, human resource and safety preparations are in place to ensure free, fair and safe elections.<\/p>\n
Of the 95 wards (by-elections):<\/p>\n
\u2022 20 are in the Northern Cape across eight municipalities;<\/p>\n
\u2022 19 are in the Eastern Cape across 13 municipalities;<\/p>\n
\u2022 14 are in Gauteng across six municipalities;<\/p>\n
\u2022 12 are in KwaZulu-Natal across nine municipalities;<\/p>\n
\u2022 11 are in the Western Cape across 5 municipalities;<\/p>\n
\u2022 Six are in the North West across four municipalities;<\/p>\n
\u2022 Five are in Mpumalanga across three municipalities;<\/p>\n
\u2022 Four are in Limpopo across four municipalities and<\/p>\n
\u2022 Four are in the Free State across three municipalities.<\/p>\n
The by-elections includes two dissolved councils in the Northern Cape, where PR candidates must also be elected (nine PR seats in Phokwane and three PR seats in Renosterberg).<\/p>\n
Voters are reminded to only vote at the voting station where they are registered.<\/p>\n
They must also:<\/p>\n
COVID-19 protocols<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 Strict social distancing practices both outside and inside voting stations.<\/p>\n \u2022 The mandatory wearing of masks over nose and mouth of all persons within the boundaries of the voting station.<\/p>\n \u2022 The application of hand sanitisers to all persons entering and exiting the voting station.<\/p>\n \u2022 The replacement of the traditional indelible ink marker pens with an indelible ink liquid, which will be applied from a bottle to the thumb of voters using cotton buds, which will be disposed after each use. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The by-elections taking place in 95 wards across 55 municipalities in all nine provinces have kicked off on a good note, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said. Voting in almost all the voting stations started at 7am and is expected to close at 9pm at 455 voting stations, 233 (51%) of which are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-171696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}