Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission, Mosotho Moepya, said despite all the challenges the commission faced during the Local Municipal Elections, the commission is happy to have delivered free and fair elections.
“I am not saying this election was without incident or challenge, nor that there are no areas for improvement. This election, like all those before it, has provided [to be a] steep learning curve and many lessons for us as the commission and for all other stakeholders,” said Moepya.
He added that this year’s Local Municipal Elections are without a doubt the toughest test the commission has faced as an institution since the dawn of democracy 22 years ago. “I am proud and pleased to say that I believe we have faced this test and dare I say it, we have aced this test.”
Moepya highlighted that the commission has reached its goals that it set for itself leading up to the elections. “We wanted to register at least one million new voters for these elections. We registered 1.3 million new voters.”
Another achievement was enabling voters to conveniently apply for special votes. The introduction of online and SMS special votes applications saw a record of 740 000 special voters apply, which is almost three times that of 2011.
Increased voter turnout was another achievement, according to Moepya, who said the turnout at voting stations improved from 57.6 percent in 2011 to 58 percent this year.
Spoiled ballots also saw a slight decline this year. “We wanted to reduce the number of spoiled ballots from 1.89 percent in 2011. It reduced to 1.83 percent.”
He highlighted that with each election, the Human Sciences Research Council conducts research on voters’ experiences on behalf of the Independent Electoral Commission.
The preliminary findings of this year’s Voter Satisfaction Survey conducted at 300 voting stations on Election Day showed that:
- 96 percent of voters believed the voting process to be free and fair.
- 96 percent of voters voiced general satisfaction with the quality of services rendered by election staff.
- 92 percent of voters indicated that they trust, or strongly trust, the commission.
- On average, voters queued for about 16 minutes before voting.
