Multi-Party Coalition in Tshwane taking urgent legal advice on IEC decision to invalidate ballots Speaker election
14 March 2023
The Multi-Party Coalition has lodged a formal objection to the outcome of the election of speaker of the Tshwane municipal council, after the IEC classified 69 ballots cast for Kholofelo Morodi (ActionSA) as ‘spoilt’.
During the counting process the DA, ActionSA and FF Plus party agents pointed to the fact that the 69 ballots clearly indicated the intention of voters. There was no confusion or ambiguity in the markings. Neither were any ballots defaced.
The IEC classified the 69 votes as ‘spoilt’ based on the fact that they were marked not with a crosses but with numbers. Yet in the IEC’s own literature, one of the examples of a valid vote is one where the intention of the voter is indicated by the marking of a number.
Had the 69 so-called ‘spoilt’ ballots not been discarded, the total result for Councillor Morodi would’ve been 106 of the 211 ballots cast.