Howard Barrell
South Africans are headed for their most expensive election ever on June 2, costing the taxpayer and political parties a total of R2-billion.
Voters will be saturated with media coverage extolling the virtues of parties, as politicians draw on the latest campaigning methods developed in Europe and the United States.
By the time the ballots have all been counted on June 3 or 4, more than R1 000 will have been spent on each voter – in view of the likelihood that fewer than 20-million voters will actually enter voting booths on polling day.
“We may have to look at ways of reducing democracy’s price tag in future,” says Professor Tom Lodge of the University of the Witwatersrand, who is now working with the independent monitor, the Electoral Institute of South Africa. “This is a high cost for a country such as ours.”
Taken together, the political parties themselves are likely to spend about R400- million on their campaigns. They are reluctant to disclose the size of their war chests. But the African National Congress is expected to spend more than any other party – more than R100-million.
The New National Party is expected to lay out more than R60-million, the Inkatha Freedom Party more than R40-million, the Democratic Party in excess of R27-million, the United Democratic Movement more than R15-million, the African Christian Democratic Party more than R10-million, the Freedom Front more than R5-million and the Pan Africanist Congress more than R1-million.
Louis Luyt’s Federal Alliance, a newcomer, could also be a big spender. And leading members and supporters of the proliferation of extra-parliamentary parties are expected to part with small fortunes.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which is organising and running both the registration of voters and the election, is expected to have spent more than R1,35- billion over the past two years by the time the final ballot paper is counted. This excludes the cost borne by other government departments to make personnel available to the IEC to help run the registration and election.
Sources in the main parties say they have not been collecting only money in preparation for the campaign. Good intelligence – about scandals, real or imagined, involving each other’s leading members – could also prove valuable
This is one reason party sources predict a dirty campaign. Another is growing anger among the opposition parties, which believe the ANC is using its control over the levers of government to tilt the electoral playing field in its favour.