Dear Editor,

With reference to the Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB) in your story ‘No charges against man in Camptown ballot box incident,’ carried on p15 of your Thursday, December 29, issue, we wish to draw to your attention that your report on the EAB is erroneous.

On November 28, 2011 outside the Camptown Polling Station in Campbellville, we specifically told your reporter that the EAB was present on the scene to investigate a report by persons outside the polling station. We emphasized that the EAB was investigating this report and was not confirming that this was what actually happened. We pointed this out again to the reporter after your paper first carried an article portraying the events you described as the EAB’s account of what happened rather than the report that the EAB was investigating.

For the record, the EAB took several statements from persons in the crowd that had gathered outside the Camptown Polling Station. These statements were given directly via telephone calls to the EAB’s Communications Centre on Election Day where they were written down. With regard to what happened inside the polling station, the EAB’s Observer posted in the station provided a witness account of what actually transpired.

The EAB will be providing its findings on this incident in its forthcoming report on the assessment of polls.
We would be grateful if you would correct the error that has now three times appeared in articles in your newspaper, which portray the EAB as having reported the events you described rather than having conveyed to your reporter than it was in the process of investigating these reports.

Yours faithfully,
Simone Mangal
Council of Management
Electoral Assistance Bureau

Editor’s note
We apologise for failing to indicate that the EAB was investigating the report.