By: Natasha Archary

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen has lambasted the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for being unprepared for the 2024 National and Provinical Elections.
Steenhuisen addressed media at the IEC Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Midrand on Friday, 31 May saying the DA will seek legal recourse against the IEC for the “omnishambles” that marred this year’s elections.
From technical glitches on voting day, to voters being turned away after standing in ridiculously long queues, Steenhuisen wants the IEC to be held accountable for denying South Africans their right to vote.
“The IEC have been a complete disaster in this election. Our biggest opponent wasn’t on the ballot paper, and I think they’re going to be responsible at the end of the day for at least 1% worth of vote share for us (DA).
Long queues, voters being turned away unable to exercise their democratic right. You’ve got one job, you’ve got 5-years to prepare for it and this is the omnishambles that you produce?
I think there needs to be a higher degree of accountability by the IEC for what has happened because you can’t be spending this amount of money and tell us you’re election ready. When concerns are raised, you brush them aside and say, you have it’s all fine but we saw the omnishambles that happened on election day.
We are considering, I’ve got my attorneys here, we are busy looking at a variety of options, because I think that the IEC, for all parties have caused significant damage to our share of the votes and it cannot be business as usual for the IEC after this.”
John Steenhuisen
“The IEC has been a complete disaster in these elections” – @Our_DA @jsteenhuisen responds to techinical glitches on the @IECSouthAfrica result systems. #ElectionsOnKaya pic.twitter.com/Syf1dS3sFO
— Kaya News (@KayaNews) May 31, 2024
Early on Friday morning, the IEC’s election results system experienced a glitch resulting in the website and results dashboard being inaccessible.
While the results portal is back up and running, concerns of vote tampering was raised by South Africans online, as they feared the IEC was trying to rig the elections because the ANC could possibly fall below the 50% majority for the first time.
Institute of Election Management Services (IEMSA)’s Terry Tselane reacted to the technical glitches, saying they can’t afford these errors as these could cause unnecessary suspicion.
Meanwhile, a ballot box went missing in uMhlathuze, KwaZulu-Natal which the IEC says had already been counted and validated.
The missing ballot box was lost in transit from the voting station in Matamzana Dube School.
Also read: IEC apologises for issues with election results system



