aThe African National Congress’s (ANC) 52nd national conference in Polokwane got off to a shaky start on Sunday when the opening ceremony — which was supposed to start at 9.30am and lead into ANC leader Thabo Mbeki’s delivery of the political report — was disrupted by the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) opposing the counting method to be used in party elections.
The ceremony started late as delegates filed into the mammoth marquee set up on a field at the University of Limpopo outside Polokwane to house the main conference.
There was also confusion as members of the media were at first not allowed in, despite the morning session being listed as open on the conference programme.
This was due to a lack of space in the marquee, and when the media were eventually allowed in, reporters and editors had to sit on the floor in front of the stage.
After an interdenominational prayer session to open proceedings, ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota moved on to the adoption of the conference programme. He then called up the party’s election commission to explain voting procedures, and it was here that the ANCYL objected to votes for the national executive committee (NEC) being counted by computer.
Electoral commission chairperson Berta Gxowa explained that vote counting would be done through the use of scanners under the scrutiny of members of the commission as well as provincial observes. Manual counting would be used in case of disputes.
However, according to ANCYL secretary Sihle Zikalala: ”Computers are for capturing, but counting should be manual.”
Under a banner reading ”Advancing in unity towards 2012”, Lekota had trouble keeping order as members from various provinces as well as ANCYL members tried to argue for or against the league’s motion to disallow computerised counting of votes.
When he asked for a motivation for the league’s motion, a delegate from KwaZulu-Natal simply said: ”The ANC has always had a history of transparency.”
Lekota replied: ”What is not transparent about counting by computer?”
There was an outcry from the audience when Lekota announced that the NEC had approved the proposed vote-counting system using computers. ”The NEC cannot decide [on this matter] for 4 000 delegates,” said one speaker from the floor.
By then it was almost 11.30am, and Mbeki had yet to deliver the political report. To avoid delaying the programme further, it was decided to discuss the voting issue later in the day, after delivery of the political report.
In her presentation of the voting rules, Gxowa also said the electoral commission proposed that names be drawn from a hat in the event of a tie in the leadership election. If a tie arose after voting was done, she proposed, the names of those tied to take a particular position should be put in a hat and the winner’s name drawn from there.
She also declared that no cameras or cellphones would be allowed in the voting area, following reports that delegates would be paid to vote for particular candidates once they provided a picture of the said vote on their ballot paper. Singing and campaigning were also barred from the voting area.
Earlier, as proceedings started, Mbeki and his deputy, Jacob Zuma, were the last to join other members of the NEC on stage. As the two front-runners for the party presidency entered, about half of the about 4 000 delegates present started singing Zuma’s personal anthem Umshini Wami, and it took almost five minutes for the singing to die down.
While waiting for Zuma and Mbeki to arrive, some delegates had danced in the walkways between rows of tables and microphones, singing pro-Zuma songs and holding up copies of Sunday’s City Press newspaper bearing the headline ”What the Zumafesto holds” above a large photograph of Zuma.