The ballot papers have been printed and distributed around the country, where they are being kept in warehouses under the watchful eyes of armed security guards.
”By and large we are a little too early with some things,” says Norman du Plessis, the deputy chief electoral officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
”The moment you start having security material too early you need to start safeguarding it and that brings its own problems.”
On the upside, this problem means that the IEC is running like a well-oiled machine. But its biggest challenge lies ahead.
On April 14 it will have to run two elections (national and provincial), with 215 000 volunteers in 17 000 voting districts, to record the votes of up to 20-million registered voters.
So far, the 2004 elections have cost the IEC about R640-million: R240-million for administration costs and R400-million for logistics. The commission is expected to spend another R150-million, predominantly on stipends for the 215 000 volunteers who will man the voting stations.
Unusually, the cost of this year’s election is down from that of the 1994 election, which cost R960-million.
”The costs have gradually dropped because we have gained experience,” Du Plessis explains.
The major challenge this year is for an equitable distribution of voters among voting districts to reduce the lengthy queues and voter frustration on election day. The IEC’s aim is to have voters queue for no longer than half an hour.
With the increase in voting districts this year, there is a need for wide publication of boundary changes, particularly in remote rural areas. In the Northern Cape, the IEC will use mobile voting stations to cater for the vast distances.
The IEC is hoping its sophisticated IT systems will give it the official results well before the end of the seven days it officially has to determine the outcome of the poll.
The Cabinet has decided that the country’s president and MPs will be elected on April 23, nine days after the poll. The president will be sworn in on April 27, coinciding with the celebration of 10 years of democracy.
A Human Sciences Research Council report on the IEC during the 1999 election found that 63% of the electorate trusted the organisation.
But Du Plessis has ”been around long enough” to know not to relax. ”We are organised, but until the election is over we would rather stay in the office than go and play golf.”