Pretoria – In less than a few hours, South Africans across the country will take to the polls in what is poised to be the largest ever Local Government Elections.
With over 200 political parties and over 61 000 candidates participating in the country’s fifth Municipal Elections, over 26.3 million registered South Africans will put their crosses next to the name of the individuals and parties of their choice to serve their communities with honesty, integrity and commitment.
President Jacob Zuma has urged all registered voters, especially the youth, to go out and cast their ballots across the 22 612 voting stations.
“We urge all 26 million registered voters across the length and breadth of our country to speak, give direction and refresh the mandate of the third sphere of government through voting on 3 August 2016.
“All registered voters must celebrate democracy and freedom by turning out to vote,” President Zuma said.
By participating in the Municipal Elections, South Africans will help strengthen the country’s democracy, ensuring accountability and contributing to the responsive governance in their municipality.
Election material
The Electoral Commission (IEC) has distributed election material to the 22 612 voting stations across the country.
This includes 153 000 ballot boxes; 133 000 voting booths; approximately 1.8 million A4 pages of the voters’ roll to provide a copy of the segment of the voters’ roll for each voting station.
It has also distributed 60 tons of stationery to voting stations including 580 000 pens and 45 000 large banners to mark the voting stations.
The IEC has also printed a record 73.9 million ballot papers for this election.
These ballot papers include 4 649 unique ballot papers representing political parties and independent candidates contesting each municipality and each ward.
All the venues for the 22 612 voting stations have been secured. Of these, 64% are in schools; 3% are in community centres; 8% are places of worship, while approximately 5% are temporary structures.
There are also 31 mobile voting stations – the majority of which are in KwaZulu-Natal (with 12) and Mpumalanga (12).
The IEC has also recruited and trained over 177 000 election officials. Over 70% are women – and 40 000 of them are under 25 years old.
More than 138 000 of the staff, which is about 78%, are unemployed.
Security
The security agencies are confident and remain ready to ensure that people are able to cast their votes in peaceful environments on Election Day.
“We are ready to make this election safe and secure. All forces are on the ground throughout the country and the NATJOINTS will be keeping a close eye on the high risk areas,” said State Security Minister David Mahlobo on Tuesday.
About 100 000 officers will be on election duty. Over 50 000 police officers will be on duty at voting stations across the country, while the rest will be mobile so that they can respond to situations if the need arises.
President Zuma has authorised the employment of more than 2 000 members of the SANDF to assist the police to maintain law and order in the run up to and during the elections, in all nine provinces.
They will be on duty until the 10th of August.
Special focus will be in the 650 hotspots like Vuwani were protesting communities have previously disrupted registrations and made the work of the IEC difficult.
Special Votes
The 2016 Municipal Elections kicked off on Monday with more than 700 000 people, who registered for special votes, casting their votes until Tuesday.
A record of 719 222 applications for special votes were granted for the elections. These applications include 315 597 (44%) home visits.
The Electoral Commission (IEC) officials visited facilities for the elderly, hospitals and the homes of those who aren’t able to make their way to voting stations on Wednesday.
Selected voting stations were opened to enable those who applied for special votes to cast their ballots.
Delays were reported at some voting stations on the first day due to factors including the delivery of incorrect ballot papers, community protests and bad weather, but overall the IEC was satisfied with the special voting.
The ROC
The National Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Pretoria is open and ready for business – as are the nine provincial results centres.
These results centres are a key aspect of the integrity of the electoral process and continue to be the envy and aspiration of many other countries.
They bring together all key stakeholders – the Electoral Commission, the political parties, observers and the media – in one venue.
This has considerable benefits for the entire process. Firstly it provides for a highly transparent results process – all the stakeholders in this room receive the results at the same time.
As results slips are captured in the municipal electoral offices (MEOs) across the country, the data is transferred to the Electoral Commission’s computer systems and stored in a database.
State-of-the-art IT and GIS applications will rapidly make data available for communication to political parties, the media and the Electoral Commission staff within the venue, and to the nine Provincial ROCs.
In addition, data in various formats will be displayed on the projection screens.
Graphic interpretations, maps, analyses, running scores and percentages are all popular displays.
No IEC official has any kind of special advantage – the whole of South Africa sees the results when and as they come in.
This is a further critical check and balance within the system which provides trust in the outcome of the elections.
The design of results system has also been audited by a top firm of auditors and given the green light.
The process is also continuously audited during the entire results capture process.
Go Vote
Government has declared Election Day as a national holiday to enable all eligible citizens to cast their vote.
Voting is a right and responsibility for all citizens and government is confident that South Africans will strengthen the country’s democracy by voting in large numbers.
Government has encouraged all South Africans to vote, especially young and first-time voters.
Voting puts power directly in your hands and government is convinced that young people will make their voices heard on Election Day.
The struggle was fought and won for the right for all South Africans to choose their own government, so go out and celebrate your democracy and freedom by voting today. – SAnews.gov.za
