/wonders how should vote when 12000km away from voting booth
Based on what she said about being thrown out, if it's true, then there needs to be action taken (voting station in Eastern Cape). Was a case of IEC being so utterly incompetent, with the manager there actively interfering with people's rights to vote imho, plus complete overreaction by police.
I fear she is demonstrably lying
here are uncontested facts: Zille voted at a different polling station at some point
Zille relied on an authorization from the IEC to be at the polling station, such authorization is given to party agents of various shapes and forms. She was in party regalia - which party agents should NOT be in while at polling stations. The IEC might have relaxed a little especially because its difficult to properly enforce and draw lines about, however it remains a taboo.
She was speaking to voters while in party regalia, as a party agent and as a person clearly identified with a particular political party... Nothing in what she said could remotely be viewed as encouraging general voting according to the voters preference as decided by the voter. She was clearly trying to influence voters and potential voters into believing that they must vote for the DA because the ANC and IEC are collaborating.
She was told to stop conduct that could be construed as canvassing. She refused she was then ejected from the polling station by the presiding officer - if she wasn't happy she could take the decision to eject on review.
- consider if Julius Malema at a polling station wearing his red beret took selfies with people in ANC kit in the queue, this would be interpreted by a reasonable person as reinforcing the freedom of our elections. If he made comments about the DA or whites in the queue it would be different and fall into canvassing.
There is no way that what Zille on her own version was doing is not within the prohibition of canvassing or could reasonably be feared by the presiding officer as canvassing. The ANC party agents may have been stirring shit complaining and the presiding officer may have been offbeat but the minute Zille was told to stop canvassing and she persisted she knowingly violated her reason for being authorized to be at the venue. She knowingly and intentionally broke the Electoral Code which as a party officer she has agreed to. Her ejectment from the premises was therefore legitimate. She at that point could have left the premises, called a press conference and all other manner of lobbying complaints. However having been ejected from the premises in refusing to vacate and in persisting in canvassing she conducted herself criminally.
Amusingly one of the ward candidates wife was standing in front of us in the queue, she was wearing a party t-shirt but quite inconspicuously. She and my mother were talking about everything except the election, when one of the party people came to ask her something she was very clear not to speak in a way that could remotely be thought of as canvassing.
The mistake the police officer made was in not calling for additional law enforcement and arresting her. SAPS unfortunately have been trained to deploy "presence force" to "assert policing control" and "de-escalate an incident in which a prosecution will not follow" - ie cops will cause people to be kept apart even if it means manhandling them rather than let them have an affray and then arrest and send to chookie. The problem is in incidents like this it means that the cops act more like bouncers than law enforcement. Its a good approach in dealing with a lot of things but it can become a problem -> if somebody is trespassing should you really go through an arrest, detention determination of bail, assignment to a prosecutor etc ... when the cops can remove them from the property. In this case though she knew she was breaking the law, she was picking a fight with the presiding officer had been advised to vacate the voting station - her permission to be present had been revoked - and she was therefore unlawfully interfering in the election. It is well justified to deploy 5 police officers and to bring on board the DDPP in Port Elizabeth to make a determination as to whether to prosecute - if I was the DDPP and ANY politician did what she was doing I would prosecute and withdraw the prosecution only after a public apology.