The lack of publicity ahead of the voter registration weekend on 4 and 5 February is quite unusual because previously in the weeks before registration, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and other government organs have made a huge fuss about the importance of checking your registration.
The lack of publicity ahead of the voter registration weekend on 4 and 5 February is quite unusual because previously in the weeks before registration, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and other government organs have made a huge fuss about the importance of checking your registration.
Perhaps they have adopted a new strategy to retain resources until the last few days when there will be an absolutely massive drive to track down voters and potential voters. The date for the voter registration campaign was announced to some not inconsiderable fanfare, accompanied by an election song, logo and slogan on 12 January – but ever since then, there has been a slightly eerie silence about when we can register, and even more important, when can we vote.
If however, you care to go on line, there is an absolute wealth of information at the IEC website which you can find at www.elections.org.za. The site offers to check for you whether your registration is still valid or not, so of course I immediately checked and, hey, whaddya know – I am registered, no problem, I can vote.
However in the last few months, the Demarcation Board increased the number of wards in our municipality from 12 to 14, so some people will not be voting in the same ward they voted in during the last elections in 2009. I was not able to find out if the IEC’s online check advised voters who are affected by these changes that they will now have to cast their votes in a different ward.
The web site is great because not only does it tell you that your details on the voters' roll are correct, but it also has a great interactive map that shows you exactly where you should vote. This is terrific for those of us who are privileged enough to be able to go online.
We were just wondering about when the IEC is going to tell the rest of the people what is going on. When we tried to find out more information about these and other questions we were told that the man in charge of elections in the Makana Municipal Area is not allowed to talk to us.
Yes, you read it correctly; the local IEC officer is not allowed to talk to the local newspaper about the local elections. Are there secrets, or don’t they think he is capable of explaining anything to the media? He is allowed to run an election, but not to talk to the media. This could really undermine someone’s self-confidence.
We are going to have local elections, right? Well, according to legislation we have to have municipal elections before the end of May, and the political parties are getting ready, sort of. Some ANC ward committees have had meetings to elect ward candidates, and it is said that even some DA candidates have been nominated to contest ward elections in Makana Municipality, but Cope is the misnomer of the era.
On the other hand Mind, the party that is against the very notion of political parties at local level, appears to be gaining some real momentum.
