Joyce J. Wangui AfricaNews reporter in Johanessburg, South Africa
As poll results continue to trickle in, two main opposition parties in SA have aired their grievances on what they term as evidences of fraud in some polling stations. COPE leader Lekota said he would declare a dispute in some 12 wards in Freestate, Bloemfontein following a shortage of ballot papers and boxes.
He has accused the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for inefficiency and its failure to quell the anomaly in time.
In a similar development, Democratic Alliance leader Hellen Zile has expressed her disappointment over the fraud evidence witnessed in Kwa Zulu Natal province, the home town of ANC’s leader Jacob Zuma.
Early Wednesday, a number of marked ballot papers were discovered in KwaZulu Natal area of Ulundi before the polling station was officially opened. And even though the IEC presiding officer in the area was arrested, opposition parties say that the IEC could have sensed the anomaly before.
In another misfortune, an official affiliated with the COPE party was shot dead in the Eastern Cape Province; police are busy investigating the matter. COPE supporters term it a political violence.
Hellen Zile of the Democratic Alliance hopes to sweep the Western Cape by storm. A darling of the predominantly white and coloured residents in Capetown, Zile anticipates a clear win in the area.
“We are good to go if the ANC doesn’t get a two-thirds majority,” Zile said that if one party doesn’t get an overwhelming majority, that would exemplify a political maturity in the voters.
Majority of Capetown residents, save for the Zuma die-hards who live in shark, have voiced support for opposition parties after becoming disillusioned with the ANC for taking too long to deliver on promises.
Though ANC is on the winning path, analysts say that the ruling party will struggle to win the two-thirds majority that it has won in the past. This is because some South Africans are disillusioned with ANC’s failed promises.
They continue to cry foul over corruption, poverty and crime. Analysts believe that such outcries might cause the party's majority to drop from the nearly 70 per cent it achieved in 2004, to below the two-thirds mark that gives it the right to change the constitution at will.
As poll results continue to trickle in, two main opposition parties in SA have aired their grievances on what they term as evidences of fraud in some polling stations. COPE leader Lekota said he would declare a dispute in some 12 wards in Freestate, Bloemfontein following a shortage of ballot papers and boxes.
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