The Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) Gauteng results centre returned to normal on Thursday after presiding officers protested over long hours on duty and having to wait for their results verified.
The officers had earlier dropped ballot result slips on the floor with some vowing to never work for the IEC ever again.
They complained that they had worked throughout the night at voting stations and that some had helped out during the casting of special votes, only to be kept waiting at the centre.
“I have a job to go to this morning, I never expected to be kept waiting until the crack of dawn … this is terrible from the IEC,” said one presiding officer.
The provincial election officer Mashego Shiburi said the IEC remained thankful to the presiding officers and “understood their frustrations”.
“We understand their frustrations earlier in the morning, they worked in the cold. Processes were in place to assist them to facilitate receiving results, they did so and were able to go home. The situation is normal now, all is left is capturing the results, one municipality has been completed.”
The Democratic Alliance had managed to retain Midvaal municipality, the only municipality controlled by the party in the province. The DA was leading in the province’s early vote tally in Tshwane and Johannesburg ahead of the ANC.
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