The report found that Parliament’s voting system had not been updated and that measures have been put in place to ensure the database is updated more regularly. We welcome the institution’s swift reaction in this regard.
The report further found that Chief Whip Dr Mathole Motshekga’s voting apparatus, which erroneously captured his vote as against even though he voted in favour, was tested “fully operational”. This however does not in any way dispute the fact that a technical glitch on his device occurred on the day of the vote.
Indeed technical glitches do not happen on inoperative or dead systems but on fully operational devises.
Similarly, “fully operational” does not mean ‘immune from technical malfunction’.
Parliament’s report therefore confirms what we have always known, that indeed the voting system and all its apparatuses, which have been used for voting over many years, are fully operational. However, such does not mean they would not experience glitches from time to time.
It is not the first time that minor technical glitches such as this happen; hence parliament has a backup system which allows party whips to manually confirm votes after every vote.