Residents of Douglas in the Northern Cape will return to the polls on 18 November following the Electoral Commission of South Africa's (IEC) decision to order a revote in Ward 3 of the Siyancuma Local Municipality.
The decision follows an incident in which ballot papers were destroyed before the counting process could be completed at the Bongani voting station.
IEC Deputy Chief Electoral Officer for Electoral Operations, Masego Sheburi, said the Commission could not exclude the damaged ballot papers from the election results.
“Given that the Commission could not exclude those torn ballots from the election result, the Commission decided that to issue a result excluding the torn ballots would be unfair,” Sheburi said.
She added that the Commission had therefore decided that votes cast at the Bongani voting station would not be counted.
The IEC has confirmed that the candidates and voters' roll used in the original election will remain unchanged.
The only process being reopened is the application period for special votes, allowing eligible voters who meet the requirements to apply.
Applications opened on Wednesday and will close on Saturday.
The revote is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 18 November.