RONNIE ELLIOTT and AFP, Cape Town | Wednesday 2.50pm.
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela announced on Wednesday that the second democratic elections will be held on June 2.
Announcing the long-awaited date in Parliament, Mandela said that while he would have preferred a date in the second half of May, “consideration of the Independent Electoral Commission’s arguments, relating to its capacity and obligations, convinced me it would be safer to hold the elections a week later”.
He said he consulted on Tuesday night with all the provincial premiers “for the sake of good governance and in the spirit of co-operation”.
“With all this in mind, it is my intention to proclaim the second of June 1999 as the date of South Africa’s second democratic elections,” Mandela said.
The announcement comes as the Democratic Party’s legal challenge to the requirement for bar-coded identity documents to vote in the election is being heard in the Pretoria High Court.
Gauteng DP leader Peter Leon expressed confidence that the application will succeed, adding that the DP is using a different approach to the New National Party, which lost a similar application in the Cape High Court last week.
He said his party will focus solely on “the unconstitutionality of the requirement for bar-coded IDs”.
The Independent Electoral Commission said on Wednesday it is delighted at the announcement. IEC chair Brigalia Bam said: “I think this brings us to an advanced stage in our process of planning and I think it is also going to create a new enthusiasm from South Africans now that they know that finally this great day is coming.”
The electoral timetable would now be set according to when the IEC believed Mandela would issue a proclamation for the electoral period — possibly before the end of the month, IEC chief executive, Mandla Mchunu said. The proclamation will entail the dissolving of Parliament.