Mpumalanga ready for elections with launch of ROC, police deployment

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It is all systems go in Mpumalanga as the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has set up the Results Operation Centre (ROC) in the province and police officers have been deployed to identify hotspots.

Provincial Police Commissioner Semakaleng Manamela says, “As a province, I want the confirm that we are ready. There are many members that are on the ground. So, far we are working on about 16 000 plus members that are being deployed including some of the departments that are with us. When we are speaking of hotspots we do have the historic background regarding those places that during the elections will be giving us challenges and all those places are being taken care of.”

More than 2 million people have registered to vote in Mpumalanga at over 1 800 polling stations.

“We have roughly more 100 000 special votes applications, almost 36 000 are home visits. We are expected to administer home visits from 9 to 5 on the two days that is Monday and Tuesday. We hope and trust that we will be able to make sure that all the registered and approved special vote applications are taken care of during the two days,” says Gugu Langa, Mpumalanga Electoral Officer.

Video: 2024 Elections – IEC Mpumalanga launches its results centre: Nhlanhla Jele reports

IEC Commissioner Janet Love is confident that they will deliver a free and fair election.

“At the moment I think all the preparations are moving ahead quite smoothly, we were very pleased today to note a report even from the weather bureau in which case they even said to us as far as they know the weather is looking favourably on all of us in the country. So, we think things are really good for all 27 million people plus to come out in their numbers.”

Political parties and independent candidates crisscrossed the length and breadth of the country, urging people to vote for them, now it is in the hands of the electorate come Wednesday.