The government sought a political compromise with opposition parties over election arrangements early last week which could have settled looming legal actions and averted Judge Johann Kriegler’s resignation from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). But, within 48 hours, it had withdrawn its offer of discussions without explanation.
A secret offer of talks was made by President Nelson Mandela on January 17, said political sources, who spoke to the Mail & Guardian independently of each other and on condition of anonymity. Mandela’s offer implied the government was willing to review its stance that voters must have bar-coded identity documents to be allowed to register for, or vote in, the forthcoming general election. But, by late the next day, the prospects for a deal were dead. Mandela had withdrawn his offer.
Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and Minister of Justice Dullah Omar had reasserted the government’s earlier position, that it would fight in court the legal actions by the New National Party and the Democratic Party against the sole use of bar-coded IDs and other election arrangements, say these sources. Disagreements at the pinnacle of government about how best to proceed with the election lay behind Mandela’s offer and its sudden subsequent withdrawal, the sources add.
Some government leaders, along with a significant minority of African National Congress MPs, have been concerned for some time that the smooth running and legitimacy of the election could be affected by the continual political, legal, administrative and funding problems the insistence on bar-coded IDs has been causing. Ronnie Mamoepa, Mbeki’s representative, said the version of events given to the M&G was “fiction”.
Mandela had not offered political talks with opposition leaders to clear up conflicts over electoral arrangements, and there had been no disagreement on the issue between the president and deputy president. “Both Marthinus van Schalkwyk, leader of the NNP, and Tony Leon, leader of the DP, met President Mandela to discuss the matter of the elections,” said Mamoepa.
“The president said he hoped the legal disputes between them could be resolved as soon as possible so that it did not affect the date of the election. The two party leaders said they also wanted a settlement as soon as possible. “On the matter of reaching a settlement, Mandela referred them to Deputy President Mbeki, who was of the view that the lawyers should meet and come up with settlement proposals. We then waited for their proposals, which arrived on Thursday,” Mamoepa added.
An NNP legal representative said no settlement proposals had been sent to the government. For the DP, a senior official said the party had put forward suggestions on what other IDs could be used in an election if the government were to drop its insistence on bar-coded documents. But that was as far as matters had proceeded.
Since Judge Kriegler’s resignation on Tuesday, a top-ranking ANC leader has confided to the M&G that, if the second big voter-registration exercise — which begins this weekend — does not markedly increase the number of people on the new voters’ roll, “then we will have to revisit the issue of bar-coded IDs”. At present only about two in five people eligible to vote are on the new roll, according to IEC figures.
Another 15-million people still have to register, of whom a few million have still either not applied for bar-coded IDs or not been issued them by the Department of Home Affairs. The new IDs, which allow for the creation of an electronic voters’ roll and a state-of-the-art election process, have been the major factor in driving up the cost of voter registration and the election.
Behind Judge Kriegler’s bland resignation statement this week lie months of wrangling during which the judge said that underfunding was undermining the IEC’s independence. Judge Kriegler is also known to have disagreed strongly with the adoption of bar-coded IDs. Judge Kriegler, some of his fellow commissioners and senior IEC management met with Mbeki and about six other Cabinet members on January 22 — a few days after the withdrawal of Mandela’s offer of talks with opposition parties — according to the M&G‘s sources.
At the meeting, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel delivered what one M&G source said was a condescending lecture on fiscal restraint and project management, during which some of Judge Kriegler’s lieutenants apparently indicated their sympathy for the government’s point of view. Judge Kriegler is understood to have come away from the meeting convinced that his view of the IEC’s role and function was irreconcilable with that of the government. He felt the government had undermined the independence of the commission.
He was also disturbed by what he thought were irreconcilable differences between his view of the IEC’s independence and that held by his fellow commissioners. After the same meeting, senior members of the government were dismissive of suggestions that they had compromised the IEC’s independence. They cited the fact that the IEC had for some time agreed on the need to use government resources for the election.
After a weekend of contemplation, on January 25 Judge Kriegler called together senior colleagues and told them of his frustrations. These included, as he saw it, the failure on the part of some of them to stand up to the deputy president at the meeting.
Kriegler then informed Mandela of his decision to resign. To Mandela’s relief he undertook to release a particularly bland resignation statement, unlikely to inflame the controversy over election arrangements. The response of some senior government leaders to his resignation was to suggest it showed that Judge Kriegler had a questionable commitment to “transformation”.
They argued that other senior commissioners, such as Brigalia Bam, Judge Kriegler’s deputy, had a more appropriate understanding of the role of the IEC. After receiving Judge Kriegler’s resignation, Mandela individually phoned opposition party leaders, imploring them not to make party political capital over what was, he told some of them, a “serious situation”.
The NNP is bringing a legal action alleging the government has acted unconstitutionally in relation to the IEC. The case begins on February 5 before a full bench of the Cape High Court. It is likely to last about three days, and the judges are expected to deliver a judgment fairly promptly. The NNP alleges the government has interfered with the commission’s independence by underfunding it and usurped one of the IEC’s functions by insisting on bar-coded IDs as the sole form of identification for the election.
The DP’s court case — on slightly different grounds — will be heard next month. Asked to comment on a faxed copy of this article, Judge Kriegler said he had “no comment”.