IEC should look to conducting elections using technology

The Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) decision to push for the postponement of the March by-elections,
due to Covid-19, undermined constitutional democracy, could have a negative impact on this year’s local government polls and service delivery, political analysts are warning.

The IEC on Tuesday announced the Electoral Court had authorised the postponement of the by-elections, due to the Level 3 lockdown restrictions, which prohibited political activity.

This brought to 24 the number of ward by-elections postponed since the start of this year.

Political experts Dr Ralph Mathekga and Sanusha Naidu, of the Institute for Global Dialogue, have warned of the implications of postponing elections.

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Said Mathekga: “We cannot suspend democracy, which includes elections, because of the pandemic. We should try by all means to have elections under the current conditions.”

The advent of Covid-19 meant “we are no longer going to have the same elections we have had in the past – perfect
elections”.

“Other countries, like South Korea and Uganda, have had elections during the Covid-19 pandemic and we should also adapt.

“The IEC should take up the challenge and come up with scenarios to look at and study. Postponing elections is like halting democratic processes.”

Naidu said the Electoral Court judgment on postponing March by-elections posed “a serious challenge to the way our constitutional democracy operates”.

“The challenge is that there is no certainty when cases of infection rates may peak or decline.

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“In terms of holding elections in March and beyond will depend on medical experts correctly predicting that by the beginning of winter we may see a third wave – leading to us anticipating that by-elections may not happen until later in the year.

“The implication of this is uncertainty. Some of these vacancies in the by-elections may impact in terms of names on
lists for mayoral or ward councillors – placing a dark cloud on whether local government elections can be hosted this year.

“It will be a good thing for the IEC to rethink some of its strategies on conducting elections using technological innovations.

“In the US we have seen how electronic and postal votes were used. We need to think about online registration but making sure there is cybersecurity in place.”

– brians@citizen.co.za

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