A meeting of thirteen opposition political parties called by Bantu Holomisa, the leader of the United Democratic Movement, has drawn up a list of demands for the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which the parties say will help the polls run more smoothly.
The meeting complained on Wednesday that ballot boxes and ballot papers for special votes are transported around, at times, without voting agents present.
”The potential for abuse could be high in outlying areas, where control measures are less likely to be enforced and political parties do not have resources,” a statement issued after the meeting said.
”The IEC has a constitutional obligation to protect the integrity of each vote. We call upon them to introduce measures to ensure that it is possible to track the amount of ballot papers delivered and the amount returned.”
Pointing out that there are approximately 19 000 voting districts with potentially several agents per district per party, the opposition parties say it is clear that a vast training effort is necessary.
They demand ”a clear and unambiguous” undertaking — backed up by a realistic plan of action — that the IEC has both the time and resources to conduct party agent training throughout the country.
They say that they commit themselves to cooperate with voting agents for each party monitoring the interests of all the parties to their declaration.
”We are extending a hand of trust towards each other and will ask our voting agents to cooperate on election day by working in shifts and sharing the workload of monitoring,” the declaration said.
They have also called on the IEC to provide clarity regarding access to the ”’results capturing centres” at local level — allowing parties the same access as to provincial and national results centres.
While on the subject of training, the parties complain that their agents have had to ”educate” the IEC’s staff on election day in the past, and they stress the importance of having presiding officers do the job. ”This will avoid unnecessary confusion, wastage of time and possible conflict,” they say.
They ask also that the IEC provides information regarding international as well as local organisations that have applied for observer/monitor status at the polling stations, and elsewhere, and insist that on election day, presiding officers should have a copy of the Electoral Act, as well as all relevant regulations, available for ready reference.
The parties also protest that the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is not doing its part in levelling the playing field. ”A promised summit with all political parties, the SABC and the IEC has not happened, despite undertakings from both the SABC and IEC,” the parties’ statement said. ”In the meanwhile a climate of distrust towards the public broadcaster has developed.
”The SABC must provide all political parties with the formula employed to allocate time to individual political parties as well as the planned programme for coverage of the elections on radio and television. An urgent meeting between the leaders of political parties and the SABC board needs to take place, on or before 6 March 2009.”
For their part the parties commit themselves to the Electoral Code of Conduct, to a peaceful electoral contest and ”will consistently call upon our supporters to practice tolerance and to resist provocation and acts of retaliation”.
The thirteen parties were the African Christian Democratic Party, Al Jama-ah, Azanian People’s Organisation, Congress of the People, Democratic Alliance, Federation of Democrats, Freedom Front Plus, Independent Democrats, Inkatha Freedom Party, Khoisan United Front, Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, United Christian Democratic Party, and the United Democratic Movement. — I-Net Bridge