IEC warns of election scam
RUSE: IMPOSTER CONTACTS PARTIES
Offer to United Democratic Movement to manipulate vote.
Is the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) running a vote-rigging scam or is an impostor hoping to reap financial gain from unsuspecting political parties?
That’s the question that has emerged after Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement (UDM) was contacted by an alleged “impostor” posing as IEC chair Mosotho Moepya with a promise to manipulate votes to give the UDM extra seats in parliament in the 2024 elections.
All the party had to do was purchase a hi-tech gadget that would make that happen without anyone knowing about it.
But the IEC was quick to distance itself from the scam and Moepya’s involvement and indicated it had been brought to its attention and reported to the SA Police Service (Saps).
According to the commission, it was “patently impossible” to scam the IEC system because of “inherent controls and safeguards in the electoral process”.
Holomisa was contacted by the man earlier this month. He said the man told him he would like to help the UDM to secure seats in parliament in the 2024 elections.
He promised to manipulate the IEC IT systems. All that the UDM had to do was to purchase a Samsung 2TN 17 portable SSD at a nominal price and that would do the trick. The gadget would allow tampering with the hardware of the IEC systems without anyone being aware of it, he said.
Holomisa is taking no chances and has called for transparency in the IEC’s dealings with its hardware and soft service providers to ensure there was no cheating.
The news came a week after former ANC secretary-general and now leader of the African Congress for Transformation Ace Magashule said he was aware of a vote-rigging scam in the IEC but did not give details.
Also, leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe party, Jacob Zuma, implied there was vote manipulation by the IEC when he questioned why ballots were counted in secret and not in the open.
In a letter to IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo, Holomisa said the man asked him to contact “Teboho Motaung”, an IT specialist at the IEC who would help the party to secure seats in parliament.