'Smooth sailing' as Nquthu vote starts

There were no major issues on Wednesday morning as voters in the rural Nquthu municipality began the process of - finally - trying to get their council constituted.

The KwaZulu-Natal municipality has been without a mayor‚ deputy mayor‚ speaker or other elected office bearers since the August local government election amid a deadlock between rival parties.

The impasse lead to the August election results being scrapped‚ with the process starting from the beginning on Wednesday.

People started queueing at voting stations as early as 6.30am. By 10.30am‚ about 225 votes had been cast at the Springlake High School voting district.

• Five reasons why today's by-election in Nquthu mattersVoting stations for the highly anticipated by-election in the northern KwaZulu-Natal municipality of Nquthu opened at 7am on Wednesday. 

The voting district's presiding officer Sizwe Ngcobo said there were 1‚525 voters there and that there were no glitches so far. IEC vice chairperson Terry Tselane said all 117 voting stations were operating.

"It has been a smooth sailing so far‚" said Ncgobo.

The voting district is IFP-dominated‚ but provincial ANC deputy chair Willies Mchunu‚ who is also the KZN premier‚ was upbeat about the party's prospects.

• Special votes open for Nquthu by-elections in KZNAs the countdown edges closer to by-elections in Nquthu in northern KwaZulu-Natal‚ the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) confirmed that all 116 voting stations in the municipality were opened for special votes on Tuesday‚ ahead of the by-elections on Wednesday. 

Provincial electoral officer Mawethu Mosery said‚ while the numbers were still low‚ people were expected to trickle in by afternoon.

"[It's] only three percent turnout by 11.20am‚" said Mosery.

He said they have 700 staff members on the ground.

On the IFP accusations that the ANC was busing people into Nquthu‚ Tselane said that would not work since such people would not appear on the voters' roll.

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Mosery said there was nothing wrong with parties transporting people to voting stations‚ but only those registered can vote.

"We heard the reports and have acted on them. We told political parties to speak to their party agents to be on the look-out and also the police to look out for that‚" said Mosery.

All political parties expressed satisfaction with the progress of voting so far.

The IEC will announce the full results and seat allocation on Thursday at 10am.

-TMG Digital/TimesLIVE