Voting off to a smooth start in Nelson Mandela Bay

Hundreds of Nelson Mandela Bay residents braved the cold, chilly weather on Wednesday to cast their vote in the 2019 National Elections, with minor glitches experienced.

Some of the challenges were at voting stations in Westview, Walmer, Newton Park, Central and Kragga Kamma.

Some of the glitches included issues with ballot boxes, ballot papers and machines used to scan IDs. But most of these problems were fixed by 8.30am.

At the Riverside Hall in Kragga Kamma Road, voting failed to start at 7am. IEC presiding officer Dorothy Human said ballet boxes had arrived a little late causing a delay for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, voters at Zondi Primary School in Zwide became impatient as the station failed to open on time.

About 400 people lined up outside the Walmer Town Hall but seals for the ballet boxes were not available. A few minutes later an IEC area manager arrived to resolve the problem.

At Greenwood Primary School, ballet boxes were dropped off late and then a machine that scanned IDs failed to work causing further delays. Eventually, officials started to manually scan IDs.

There was a delay in the delivering of ballot papers at the Kabega Primary School voting station. Voting only commenced at about 07:20.

Voting ran smoothly in Forest Hill while Theo Potgieter, 20, an NMU fine arts student, braved the cold weather without any shoes.

Hundreds of people gathered in NU29, Motherwell, hours before the voting station even opened.

The station opened on time with voters briskly casting their ballots.

Nomisile Mountain, 60, of Motherwell, said she has voted in every election since 1994 but this year was different.

“I really like Cyril Ramaphosa. He is different,” she said.

There was a steady flow of voters in the Gelvandale and Helenvale areas with no incidents reported.

Voting was also running smoothly at the Westbourne Road Oval with no hiccups reported. About 400 people were queuing just before 9am. Presiding officer Bukeka Matinise said they expected about 3000 people to make their mark.

Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Mongameli Bobani arrived at the KwaMagxaki community hall at about 8.30am to cast his vote.

The queue at  the Pityana voting station in KwaNobuhle grew quickly from 7am. IEC presiding officer Nomvuyo Gobizembe said everything was going smoothly.

Fezekile Mbula, 69, who uses a crutch to walk,  said he got up at 4am to vote in Pityana.

Asked why he did not use special vote, Mbula said he came to the voting station on Tuesday but was told he had not registered for a special vote.

In Summerstand, at the Ocean Sciences Campus voting station where about 5991 are registered to vote, they opened on time despite delays. 

Presiding officer Nelisa Vece said that it had been a fairly smooth process despite logistical issues.

"The ballot seals arrived late so as a temporary measure we used the IEC stickers to temporarily seal the boxes. When the seals arrived we sealed the boxes with all the necessary party representatives present," she said.

"We also ran out of stationary so we are currently using the stationary that was set aside for the special voting day."