African Congress for Transformation (ACT) leader and former ANC Secretary General, Ace Magashule, says he has evidence and proof that votes may have been rigged.
He reiterates that if the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) agrees to a recount, that will open a can of worms.
Magashule has added that if political parties raise concerns about the IEC, they don’t do it to undermine the credibility and integrity of the commission.
He has been speaking to the SABC at the National Results Center in Midrand.
“These are serious discrepancies and irregularities, and I will call it, in simple terms, fraud, because we have presented to the IEC the real visuals of what is happening on the ground. The results, slips—we’ve presented something captured from the results slips from the IEC but capturing something else. This morning I saw a report from one video in Welkom where the ANC votes from 490 to 690, but the slip is there, but the results of the IEC when they capture the resists are no more than 49, it’s 600 or something. In one video, we got 300, but what is recorded is 30, and that’s deliberate, not mistakes. In the ballot, votes are given to ActionSA. Everybody wants a recount; should we keep quiet for the sake of the integrity of the IEC?”
VIDEO | ACT leader, Ace Magashule cries foul over poll results:
Gauteng
The IEC in Gauteng says it is nearing completion with the declaration of votes at the provincial Results Operation Centre in Alberton with 99% of the votes captured so far.
The African National Congress (ANC) is still below the 40% mark with 34.2%, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 27.7% and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 12.8%.
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party is at number four with 9.6% of voters’ support.
IEC Gauteng Provincial Spokesperson, Moses Pitso, says they are close to completing the tally.
Pitso says, “We are finalising today, we are at 99% as it relates to the capturing of the results slips. We are just about 250 that have to be scanned. Once that has been concluded, we are going to check if there are any exceptions in the province where over 3.6 million people voted.”
Free State
The Free State has become the second province to conclude capturing all its votes for the provincial legislature.
The ANC has retained its majority in the province at almost 52%.
This is, however, a sharp drop from just over 61% four years ago.
The DA is second at 21.85%, 4% more than in 2019.
The EFF is third at almost 13.5%.
The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and MK round up the top five in the province.
2024 Elections | Political parties react to the voting results in Free State:
