Sampson clears up logistical matters

By Cindy Witten
23 April 2009

Chief Electoral Officer Courtney Sampson cleared up some logistical issues faced by the IEC. This following rumours that the IEC had run out of ballot papers. Sampson reiterated that this was not the case.
“I want to correct one very important fact. We did not run out of ballot papers in this province,” said Sampson, “What happened is that in some voting stations we ran out of ballot papers.”
In those situations, the IEC saw to it the extra ballot papers were delivered to the necessary voting stations.

Sampson expressed his regret that people had to stand in long queues before casting their ballots. He blamed this on the logistical nightmare, as voters made their way to which ever polls they wanted to vote at, instead of making their mark where they had registered.
“Long queues is always an ugly thing to be standing in. It really frustrates people. It causes a lot of anxiety, it causes anger and it should not happen,” he said.