Wednesday’s local government elections in the Makana Municipal area were remarkably smooth. No one in our newsroom has ever voted in any other country, so we cannot in all honesty make a direct comparison, but we believe that the South African Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has proved it can run an election as well as most developed countries.
Wednesday’s local government elections in the Makana Municipal area were remarkably smooth. No one in our newsroom has ever voted in any other country, so we cannot in all honesty make a direct comparison, but we believe that the South African Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has proved it can run an election as well as most developed countries.
There were a number of minor problems in several voting stations, but the IEC staff appeared to have the confidence and ability to solve these difficulties quite efficiently. Voting stations opened on time, there was enough voting material and the IEC staff knew what they were doing. We were pleasantly surprised by the ease of media access to the stations. In the run-up to the elections, and particularly in the voter registration campaigns, IEC officials were expressly forbidden to speak to the media. Such a blanket shut-down naturally breeds suspicion. “Why,” we asked, “won’t they speak to us? What are they hiding?” As it happened, our photographers and reporters were given considerable access to the voting stations. We were allowed to take photographs within reason and the IEC staff were, with a few odd exceptions, friendly and accommodating. Some of them were positively chatty – an amazing turnaround from the registration weekend, when an IEC official refused to answer a simple, “How are things going?” Even police officers at several stations were friendly and willing to engage in small talk with our reporters. This is unusual because normally when we encounter police officers at crime scenes, they are either openly hostile towards anyone with a camera and a notebook, or they ignore reporters completely. Covering the elections in Makana was quite a pleasant experience. We had normal conversations with policemen and IEC officials and the election did not implode. The only hostility we encountered was in some wards, where members of a certain party, whose leadership had already declared the media to be the enemy, postured and growled at people who answered our questions. Makana had a successful election at a time when some people were advocating boycotts and others said that election fatigue was beginning to set in. Surprise, surprise – at 55%, the voter turnout was higher than international standards for local elections, which goes to show that we are still interested in voting. Viva democracy!
