Marafaele Mohloboli

THE Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says it is yet to receive an official complaint and “valid proof” from the outgoing government on allegations of voting irregularities in the 3 June 2017 elections.

This was after the outgoing seven-party coalition government held a press conference on Friday claiming there was “evidence” of voting irregularities.

Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, who spoke on the seven parties’ behalf, also called for a forensic audit of the voters’ roll saying it had been tampered with.

“We are making this suggestion because there is damning and tangible evidence that that there were some fraudulent activities and tampering of the voters’ roll,” said Mr Metsing.

“Some voters were given a chance to register for the elections way after the deadline for such activities. Some of the people’s names were captured with a pen and they were still given a chance to vote on election day.”

He said some voters were transferred from their constituencies and voting centres to vote twice.

“Some people voted twice and even thrice because their names appeared more than once in different lists. All these fraudulent activities were in contravention of the electoral law,” Mr Metsing asserted.

However, IEC Director of Elections Letholetseng Ntsike yesterday told the Sunday Express they were yet to receive an official complaint on the allegations of voting irregularities.

She said the outgoing government’s claims contradicted their earlier acceptance of the electoral process and results.

“We find it very strange that the parties are contradicting themselves after initially stating that they were satisfied with the electoral process and that they had not encountered any hiccups whatsoever,” said Dr Ntsike.

“I was surprised to learn that they are now saying some voters were registered way after the legally-stipulated period.

“The only activity that took place was the corrections to objections on the spellings of names. This was concluded seven days before the elections. After that, there was no new data entered into the voters’ roll.”

She said all the contesting parties were represented by agents mandated with ensuring the integrity of the ballots.

“I really wonder what role their party agents played, since they were tasked with ensuring there were no discrepancies.

“They did not report any anomalies and also endorsed the results obtained at the voting centres.

“We still await an official report on these allegations and valid proof to substantiate their claims.”