A GROUP of Durban University of Technology students are convinced the University’s SRC election process last week was rigged with irregularities and took to the Vice Chancellor’s offices on Monday with grievances, demanding a re-election.
With dozens of ballot papers that were found around campus in the early hours of Sunday morning in his hand, student Gazuzu Nduli, chair of the EFF Student Command at DUT and an observer of the election process told Berea Mail the election process was “far from free and fair.”
“I believe a can of worms was opened after the whole process and it all actually started when the nomination process was opened and closed but later re-opened to add more candidates which is not part of the University’s Electoral Commission. We believe even the IEC has distanced itself from the process because of it. The second issue was when the previous (current) SRC managed to send out communications (sms) telling students who to vote for on the SRC University’s student database, when they as candidates should not access during the campaigning stage of elections,” Nduli explained.
Another issue, he said, was that of students who did not appear on the student voter’s roll and the difficulty they faced trying to go back to their respective departments to return with a “proof of registration” which made the process difficult for many to continue to vote amid lectures and tests.
“The third and major problem came after the elections. As an observer I found irregularities in the counting process. We started counting around midday because we battled to agree on a counting system, then after a whole day of counting (nearly 24 hours), when we had already tallied votes from Ritson Road, Steve Biko campus and a ballot box from ML Sultan which was the bulk of votes, we gathered that our EFFSC candidates were leading seven to one with the SASCO affiliated candidates- when the counting process was changed because it was allegedly taking too long. While the counting was a lot faster, there was a complete turnaround moving towards the students affiliated to SASCO who miraculously started leading with all eight seats. The two remaining ballot boxes could not have warranted such a turnaround,” he added.
“The final incident was on Sunday morning at around 2am when dozens of ballot papers were found near the campus clinic. It is unconstitutional and that is why we protested. We tried to address our issues with the the Student Governance Department to no avail. We want a response after handing over our memorandum and hope they decide to have a re-election,” he said.
Nduli said students were prepared to take legal action if their grievances were not taken seriously.
Alan Khan, senior director of corporate affairs at DUT, said all student organisations that participated in the DUT SRC Elections are aware of the electoral process that must be followed. “The University has an Electoral Commission that runs the SRC elections. DUT also has an MoU with the IEC, who assist the University with the SRC elections. The IEC allows DUT to use its election materials, however, the IEC brand is covered up, as it would create a false impression that the IEC is running the SRC election.
“We have no knowledge of the IEC distancing themselves from the 2016 DUT SRC elections. We advised all student organisations to follow the agreed to electoral process. All complaints and objections must be submitted to the University’s Electoral Commission. The Commission will then investigate and announce their decision. DUT management could not intervene, as this was a matter that fell under the jurisdiction of the Electoral Commission as administer of the elections,” Khan added.
Meanwhile, IEC communications officer, Thabani Ngwira confirmed an MOU was signed to assist with lending voter material such as ballot boxes and booth etc. “We asked them to cover our logo because we are not involved in the actual voting process,” he said.
