Ballot papers stolen from Hillcrest voting station as police ask why they were there the night before

Police in KwaZulu-Natal have opened a case of burglary after voting materials belonging to the Independent Electoral Commission were reportedly stolen from a voting station in Hillcrest between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the South African Police Service said in a media statement.

According to the statement, the IEC’s Presiding Officer went to the school used as a voting station on Tuesday evening and put sensitive material, including inks, the voter’s roll and ballot papers, inside an unlockable guard house. The Presiding Officer reportedly locked the school gate and left.

A group of about ten people could see what the official was doing inside the guard house, according to the information in the statement. The school does not have a security guard overnight.

When the Presiding Officer arrived on Wednesday morning, she noticed the school gate was open and people were standing outside it. At the guard house she found that ballot papers and other IEC materials had been stolen. The matter was reported to the police.

Police investigations will also seek to establish why ballot papers were transported to a voting station the night before the elections and without a police escort. The statement says part of the police’s responsibility during elections is to escort Presiding Officers with sensitive materials from warehouses to voting stations and back without fail, and that the movement of sensitive material is done on the day of the elections.

The statement was issued by the Office of the Provincial Commissioner KwaZulu-Natal. Enquiries are directed to Colonel Robert Netshiunda.

The source document is available at https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=72232.