News / Africa
South African Electoral Commison uses coin to decide election winner
06 Jun 2011 at 14:09hrs | Views
Defeated candidate angry after IEC tosses a coin to decide winner.
AN aspirant Limpopo councillor is hopping mad after his hopes were dashed by a tossed coin.
Isaiah Mabonyane, who stood as an independent candidate for Ward 3 in Mutale, outside Thohoyandou, got the same number of votes as ANC candidate Sarah Rambuda. Both candidates were tied at 823 votes.
The impasse was then resolved through tossing a coin with Rambuda coming out the winner.
Mabonyane, however, accuses the IEC of robbing him of becoming an elected representative of his community. He accuses the IEC of foul play in favour of the ANC candidate.
Mabonyane said he received a congratulatory call from the IEC on Friday.
"An IEC official called me at around 2.30pm to congratulate me," he said.
Mabonyane said he was surprised to receive another call later telling him that there was a tie between him and Rambuda.
"The (IEC) official told me to rather resolve the impasse by spinning a coin to determine who the winner should be," he said.
Mabonyane said he told the official he could not accept that and would rather have another election. He claims that Rambuda tossed her coin and won and was then declared councillor for the ward.
"I could not sell the souls of the people who had voted for me by tossing a coin," he fumed.
He said he met his supporters on Sunday where they decided there should be another election.
Limpopo IEC head, Nkaro Mateta, refuted allegations of robbery, saying the process had been "fair and honest".
Mateta said this was not the only incident as there was another draw in KwaZulu-Natal which also had to be decided th same way.
"The toss was done in the presence of representatives of at least five different political parties," she said.
IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela yesterday said the local government Municipal Structures Act allows for the use of a lot whenever there is a tie in the number of votes received by candidates.
South Africa is not the only country that uses a coin to resolve a poll tie.
AN aspirant Limpopo councillor is hopping mad after his hopes were dashed by a tossed coin.
Isaiah Mabonyane, who stood as an independent candidate for Ward 3 in Mutale, outside Thohoyandou, got the same number of votes as ANC candidate Sarah Rambuda. Both candidates were tied at 823 votes.
The impasse was then resolved through tossing a coin with Rambuda coming out the winner.
Mabonyane, however, accuses the IEC of robbing him of becoming an elected representative of his community. He accuses the IEC of foul play in favour of the ANC candidate.
Mabonyane said he received a congratulatory call from the IEC on Friday.
"An IEC official called me at around 2.30pm to congratulate me," he said.
Mabonyane said he was surprised to receive another call later telling him that there was a tie between him and Rambuda.
Mabonyane said he told the official he could not accept that and would rather have another election. He claims that Rambuda tossed her coin and won and was then declared councillor for the ward.
"I could not sell the souls of the people who had voted for me by tossing a coin," he fumed.
He said he met his supporters on Sunday where they decided there should be another election.
Limpopo IEC head, Nkaro Mateta, refuted allegations of robbery, saying the process had been "fair and honest".
Mateta said this was not the only incident as there was another draw in KwaZulu-Natal which also had to be decided th same way.
"The toss was done in the presence of representatives of at least five different political parties," she said.
IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela yesterday said the local government Municipal Structures Act allows for the use of a lot whenever there is a tie in the number of votes received by candidates.
South Africa is not the only country that uses a coin to resolve a poll tie.
Source - Sapa
