IEC confirms that Free State is running out of ballot papers

Ryan Coetzee, Chief Executive Officer of the Democratic Alliance
22 April 2009

Chris Mepha, the IEC's Provincial Electoral Officer for the Free State, has just confirmed to the Independent Electoral Commission's (IEC) Provincial Party Liaison Committee that the Free State is rapidly running out of ballot papers, and that growing numbers of the bigger voting stations have already run out.
 
Many DA voters are effectively being turned away from the polls as we speak. The situation in the Free State and in other areas seems to be deteriorating.
 
It simply beggars belief that the IEC should run out of ballot papers, since it is a very simple exercise to determine exactly how many registered voters there are in each voting district, and to make provision for additional ballot papers in each voting district.
 
We regard the ballot paper shortage as gross incompetence on the part of the IEC and will consider all possible remedies if the situation does not improve very rapidly.