IEC adds final touches to ROC

Friday, April 25, 2014

Pretoria – With less than two weeks to go to the 2014 General Elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has begun putting the final touches to its preparations at the national Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Pretoria.

According to the IEC, the ROC will be completed this weekend and will officially be opened on 30 April - a week before the elections.

Media houses have already started familiarising themselves with their allocated office spaces where they will report on the country’s fifth general election results.

Currently at the centre, technicians are busy setting up result screens and have assured IEC officials that everything will be up and running this weekend

With regard to political party seating arrangements at the lower level of the ROC, everything has been completed.

The IEC’s spokesperson Kate Bapela told SAnews that she was confident that the centre will be ready this weekend.

“I’m confident that the centre will be ready this weekend,” she said, adding that it will start operating from next week.

Political party representatives have also expressed confidence in the centre that it will be ready this weekend.  

Meanwhile, the IEC says it has published the final list of candidates for the May 7 national and provincial elections.

The IEC has provided candidates with certificates confirming their candidacy, said the IEC in Friday.

The final lists show a total of 8 651 candidates who are standing for election on the regional, national and provincial lists of 45 political parties. This is slightly fewer than the 9 117 candidates who appeared on the final lists for the 2009 election.

The IEC said there were 2 089 candidates on national lists, 2 165 candidates on regional lists and 4 397 candidates on provincial lists contesting for 400 National Assembly and 430 provincial legislature seats respectively – giving candidates an overall statistical 1 in 10 chance of election. – SAnews.gov.za