The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) said on Wednesday it has allocated free time slots for pre-election broadcasts according to a new points system.
This was after complaints from parties who did not have seats in the National Assembly, said Icasa councillor Brenda Ntombela.
”Icasa received these complaints after the national election in 2004,” she said.
Parties complained that free time slots should be fairly allocated to all participants in the election.
”A new point system was formed after taking their concerns into consideration. We decided to distribute points equally among the four categories used for the allocation of Party Election Broadcasts [PEBs] slots,” Ntombela said.
The four categories, each carrying 25 points, were:
- The number of seats a party had in the National Assembly;
- The number of candidates it had nationally;
- The number of candidates it had regionally; and
- The number of candidates it had provincially.
Ntombela said, for example, if a party was going to field more than 200 candidates in the regional category, it would get the full 25 points.
If it fielded fewer than 200 candidates, the number of points would be calculated proportionally.
This meant that if a party fielded a higher number of candidates per category than other parties it was more likely to win points, even though it did not have seats in the National Assembly or provincial legislatures.
”Realise that the point system in 2004 was not equally spread out as it is for this year’s election.
”We calculated the number of slots by using a spreadsheet, and looked at which party had the number of points fitting for the correct number of slots.”
She said that Icasa conducted workshops countrywide to inform parties participating in the 2009 elections on April 22 about the new point system.
”After drafting the new point system regulations, we sent out for comment. We then went throughout the country conducting workshops in August last year.
”All political parties were invited to attend. They all had ample opportunity to bring issues forward, but I have no recollection of any issues.”
After the airtime slots were announced on Tuesday, there were reports that the Democratic Alliance (DA) was unhappy to have received only three slots.
DA spokesperson James Selfe said Icasa was ”wrong and misguided” in the way the slots were allocated.
”They don’t understand the electoral system. If they are adamant to go that way, we object, but will adhere,” Selfe said.
He said a letter of appeal would be written to Icasa, but ”at this stage PEBs was not the end all and be all of their campaign”.
The PEBs started on Wednesday March 25 and would end on April 19, about 48 hours before polling commenced.
They would be broadcast on SABC 1, 2 and 3 as well as all SABC radio stations. In all, 84 PEBs would be broadcast.
The African National Congress, the Congress of the People, Independent Democrats, and the African Christian Democratic Party each received five slots.
The DA, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania received three slots. The United Democratic Movement received four slots. The Minority Front and the Pan Africanist Movement were allocated two slots, and Women Forward received one slot. — Sapa