Part of NASWA's petition deal with the question of spoilt votes.
The number is not insignificant at about 3%. NASWA acknowledges the 2013 ruling on the subject. Here are the relevant parts
29. The Petitioners aver that this Honourable Court should consider the total number of verified rejected votes in ascertaining whether any candidate met the constitutional threshold....
.....
36
E.RELIEFS SOUGHT IN THE PETITION
e. A declaration that the rejected and spoilt votes count toward the total votes cast and in the computation of the final tally of the Presidential Election;
The Petition.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2rMMQJiqMB8QTNpSjhDaFF0Yms/viewSupporting Affidavit
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2rMMQJiqMB8azUzUmU4VTl2QVk/view?usp=drive_webI think the arguments against including them are very strong. A rejected/spoilt presidential ballot is;
1. Any ballot for another election in the presidential ballot box
2. Blank/unfilled presidential ballot
3. Wrongly filled presidential ballot (marking against multiple candidates/ outside the boxes
4. Fake ballot box
5. Any other foreign paper inside the presidential ballot at the time of counting
Presidential ballots cast in other boxes are spoilt/rejected ballots for the respective elections.
Including them disadvantages the leading candidate and may make a difference between an outright win and runoff. It may also affect the county threshold too though much unlikely.
I understand NASWA is trying as much as possible to force a runoff by chipping off at Uhunye's 4.5% that is in a second best case scenario, the first being nullifying the entire election. But I think this is wasteful of the precious 14 days available to them introducing this aspect.