By Norm Dixon
JOHANNESBURG — Inexperience, lack of preparation and ineptitude on the part of the Independent Electoral Commission contributed to confusion during the first two days of the election. However, the overriding cause of problems was the enthusiastic and unexpectedly large turnout, which stretched the IEC's administrative capacity until, in some areas, it simply snapped. Voting stations were forced to close after huge numbers of voters exhausted the available supplies of ballot papers and invisible ink, some within hours of the opening of the polls.
Poor planning, transport failures and other factors caused many booths in more remote areas to fail to open on time, or at all. In large parts of KwaZulu/Natal, Transkei and Ciskei, equipment and papers were unavailable as late as the afternoon of April 28.
IEC chairperson Judge Johan Kriegler explained that the IEC was always going to have a difficult task. It had to organise an election at short notice, in a country that had never conducted an election on such a scale, and which would involve an unknown number of eligible voters who were entitled to vote anywhere they chose. The IEC had to recruit 200,000 part-time, inexperienced workers.
On top of these problems, the late entry of the Inkatha Freedom Party meant that stickers had to be printed, distributed and individually applied to ballot papers. The number of voting stations for the area tripled overnight after the IFP decided to enter the election just a week before voting was due to begin.
Under-allocation of election materials to many areas resulted from apartheid-era census figures that vastly underestimated the number of Africans. In the remote North West Province, the IEC is said to have used the flow of sewage to estimate the number of people.
Rapid urbanisation was not taken into account. In Kroonstad in the Orange Free State, instead of an estimated 20,000 voters over three days, 60,000 had voted by 2.30 pm on April 27.
The IEC denied that any substantial number of ballot papers had gone missing. In many areas, an IEC spokesperson said, "We had much higher voter traffic than anticipated. The ballot papers are not lost, they are out there somewhere. They were distributed to 9000 voting stations. Obviously, some will have surplus and some have shortages."
An anxious Nelson Mandela on April 28 said a large number of people had yet to vote. "In many areas where Africans are to be found, ballot papers were not delivered or delivered late ... It is clear to me there has been a massive sabotage. It is striking that in areas occupied by whites, coloureds and Indians, voting went smoothly and ballot papers arrived in time ... The problem has occurred in African areas."
Mandela said that forces opposed to democracy may have interfered with the distribution of election material.
The IEC announced that an investigation would be conducted into the possibility that ballot papers were hijacked or diverted illegally.
The IFP accused the IEC of collaborating with the ANC to deny it votes. Pan Africanist Congress president Clarence Makwetu also accused the IEC of "conniving" with the ANC to "rig" the election in the Western Cape. The Democratic Party, the National Party and the Freedom Front all criticised the IEC's handling of the election.
An IEC spokesperson urged the press and political parties to see the problems in perspective. He said that only 900 of the 9000 voting stations nationally were affected by serious problems. The worst affected of the new provinces were the PWV, where 20% of the booths — mainly on the east Rand — were not functioning, KwaZulu/Natal (15%), the Northern Transvaal (15%) and the Eastern Cape (20%).
In order to overcome the problems and defuse threats from IFP leader Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi to again withdraw from the race, the IEC allowed voters to write in their support for the IFP if no stickers were available at a booth. When Buthelezi complained that this would disenfranchise illiterate IFP supporters, the IEC ordered late on April 27 the emergency printing of 18 million extra ballot papers with the IFP included.
Polling booths were authorised to remain open for 24 hours a day until midnight, April 28. April 28 was declared a public holiday — much to the chagrin of big business. Military aircraft distributed the papers to voting stations throughout the country before dawn.
April 28 proved much more orderly, with much reduced waiting times at the majority of booths. By 11am presiding officers at some booths in Soweto were appealing to the press to announce that their booths were empty.
The crisis in the east Rand seemed to have been rectified, and tens of thousands successfully cast their votes. However, thousands of mostly IFP supporters caught out by their party's late flip-flop into the election, were still trying to get temporary ID cards as late as 6pm.
Voting was extended to April 29 in the former homelands of Transkei and Ciskei in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu in KwaZulu/Natal, and Lebowa, Venda and Gazankulu in the Northern Transvaal. Judge Kriegler said late opening of voting stations and insufficient supplies meant that voters in these areas did not have a fair opportunity to cast their votes.
Many isolated irregularities and incidents were reported. As would be expected, the parties least likely to win seats have protested the loudest. While some charges are serious, they are unlikely to affect the overall result in any significant way.
Some of the most serious charges relate to the activities of the IFP in its strongholds in KwaZulu. The ANC reported extensive "violations of the electoral laws, regulations and code of conduct in some parts of the province of KwaZulu/Natal". It said IFP supporters had removed ballot boxes from polling places, set up "pirate polling stations" and threatened and expelled IEC officials and ANC representatives from stations.
Most major parties seemed prepared to accept the poll when stations finally closed on April 29. Several groups of international observers have provisionally pronounced the election free and fair.