IHEC slips up at first hurdle

Saturday’s voting for security personnel and IDPs served as a trial run for today’s election. While provisional reports from independent observers did not cite any major instances of election fraud, IHEC’s failure to effectively explain why many of its voting machines malfunctioned is already casting doubts over the integrity of the process.

IHEC announced on Saturday evening that 706,000 security personnel had cast their ballots, representing an overall participation rate of 67%. A further 48,000 IDPs also voted, according to IHEC. The breakdown of participation rates by province is as follows: