MK party wants eThekwini votes quarantined over KZN IEC ‘system failures’

The MK party has requested that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) isolate certain votes from KwaZulu-Natal, citing alleged issues with the voting system. On Friday, the party lodged an official protest with the IEC, claiming a "serious system failure during the real-time result tracking and data transfer process at the eThekwini Results Operations Centre (ROC) caused disruptions and modified the audit trail."

This malfunction, they argued, jeopardizes the reliability of the vote counting. Discrepancies exist The party pointed out that while the results capture continued, "significant mathematical and physical discrepancies" have since been discovered. "Real-time figures on the ROC leaderboards consistently diverge from the officially certified physical result sheets (Form NP041) signed by party representatives at various polling stations," the MK party alleged.

Furthermore, they claimed systemic problems arose during the on-site verification, reconciliation, and sorting of ballots during the recent elections. Quarantine demanded The party urged the IEC to isolate the disputed votes and postpone announcement of results until the issue is resolved. "The IEC must enforce an immediate technical freeze and declare a quarantine status for all system inputs, and processing of results for the affected Voting Districts (VDs) and wards in the eThekwini Metro.

All data collection for these areas must cease until a public, auditable investigation is completed," they demanded. Transparency sought The MK party also called for a clear, impartial technical explanation from the IEC about the glitch and its impact. "The IEC must permit an independent Forensic Systems Analyst, chosen by the opposing parties, to examine the data processing infrastructure, coding procedures, and physical ballot checks," they added.

Dispute over agents The party also challenged the IEC's claim that the MK party did not deploy party representatives at several polling stations, calling it a "misleading assertion that hides technical failures and oversight lapses." "The Commission should publicly retract its allegations against the MK party for not deploying station agents, which undermines public trust during an ongoing electoral dispute," they insisted.

Protest outside the IEC The objection follows suspicions of the IEC by MK party members due to technical problems in the 2024 general election, which they believe may have affected their vote share. MK party deputy president Duduzane Zuma said on Thursday that the party remains dissatisfied with the handling of the matter and requested greater transparency.

Protesters outside the eThekwini IEC results center on Friday called for peace and assured the public that they were observing the result.