South Africa
IEC promises to keep lights on in voting stations during elections─── 17:16 Wed, 20 Mar 2019
The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said that the recent power cuts would not negatively impact the upcoming elections.
He said the IEC would ensure that all voting stations had electricity on May 8.
Mamabolo said the electricity supply was a matter of concern in the upcoming elections and they were putting together second tier contingency plans.
"In order to protect the integrity of the electoral process, we will spare no cent and we will spare no effort to ensure that there is sufficient lighting inside of voting stations on election day."
At a briefing by Eskom and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan earlier this week, they were unable to tell the country when load shedding would end.
Mamabolo was speaking on Wednesday after political parties contesting the 2019 elections had signed the IEC's Code of conduct.
A record 48 political parties will contest the May 8 national elections, 19 more parties on the ballot paper compared to the last general elections in 2014.
African News Agency (ANA)
