Boxes containing ballot papers for next week’s election were stolen last night at Dobsonville in Soweto‚ the Electoral Commission said on Friday.
They were stolen from a delivery vehicle.
“The Electoral Commission has established that the boxes contained ballot papers for Ward 29 and Ward 31 in Johannesburg.”
Local government elections are taking place countrywide on Wednesday.
Officials think the thieves may not have known what they were stealing.
“It is unlikely that the perpetrator/s were aware the boxes contained ballot papers as the vehicles and boxes are unmarked.
“...The Electoral Commission and the South African Police Service are working closely in the investigation of this incident.
“The SAPS has already recovered two booklets and found an indeterminate number of others burnt.
“The recovered ballots will remain quarantined and contingency measures are in place to replace these ballots at the voting stations affected.”
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As part of the security measures‚ each ballot book has a unique serial number allowing the Electoral Commission to identify exactly which ballots are affected and to “quarantine” them.
“Given the known identity of these ballots as well as the security features built into the ballot papers themselves‚ it is confident that the loss of these ballot papers can have no impact on the integrity of the elections.”
The numbers of the missing booklets for Ward 29 are 127 – 146 and for Ward 31 are 76 – 113. Each book has 100 ballot papers.
The Electoral Commission urged anyone with knowledge of the theft‚ or any attempt to use these ballots‚ to report this to the SAPS immediately.
Source: TMG
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