Wally Mbhele
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) announced this week that it was ready to deliver South Africa’s second democratic elections and promised that the 1994 chaos that saw the shortage of ballot papers would not occur on June 2. They are expecting more than 20-million potential voters go to the polls.
Confident IEC officials this week unveiled a detailed plan to ensure a smooth election, promising a speedy announcement of results because the “longer people wait for results, the less credible those results become”. The Electoral Commission Act provides for election results to be published within seven days of the election.
The IEC said it hoped to ensure that perceptions of vote-rigging and a lack of transparency that characterised the 1994 elections do not recur this year.
IEC official Howard Sachs said the commission has decided to focus all its activities from June 2 under one roof at the Pretoria showgrounds for its operations, announcement of results and verification. The centre would also cater for political party involvement, the media and special guests.
Although no election can be perfect, the IEC said it will deploy 250 000 personnel countrywide to ensure it was “maximally free and fair”.
If problems are encountered, the IEC predicted they would centre on results not reaching the elections centre in Pretoria timeously, conflicting results when comparisons are made and legal disputes from political parties.
The IEC said the infrastructure required to deal with its task includes about 30 000 faxes and 15 000 telephone calls. Already 600 computers, 25 servers, 1 500 power points, 1 000 telephone lines and 120 fax lines have been installed with two back-up generators.
There is office space for 16 national political parties at the Pretoria showgrounds, and 10 for provincial parties.
The IEC said that, after voting, results would be gathered, verified and certified before seats would be allocated to individual politicians.