The countdown begins – but what about Ward 22?

SO THAT’S it, is it, May 7, which I see is a Wednesday. That’s the day when the citizens of this country, those over 18 (and can prove it by way of a bar-coded ID book), men and women, sane or crazy as foxes, criminal and saint, incarcerated or free as the birds, as free as hadedas, drunk or sober (although I seem to recollect that it is an offence to vote when your are vrot with dop, but it may not be, maybe it’s just an offence to be drunk in public), all and sundry get to put their mark next to their party of choice.

Yep, think of the craziest, thickest, most corrupt, drug-dealing and most ignorant idiot you know, and they have the right to vote, and their vote counts as much as that of a billionaire genius with philanthropic tendencies. Think of the most violent, triple-lifesentenced, unrepentant axe murderer, and he (it’s usually a he, I imagine) has as much right to vote as the gentle, muesli-eating pacifist who’s never even had a parking ticket, not one, ever. Democracy is a wonderful thing; it is the great leveller.

As far as I can see, in terms of the Electoral Act, the only people who cannot register as a voter are those who have been declared by the High Court to be of unsound mind, and those detained under the Mental Health Act, 1973 (Act No 18 of 1973), and let’s face it, there are still some real nutters loose in our streets, many of them behind the wheels of various vehicles.

Now at this stage of the proceedings, the voters’ roll is closed and you can no longer register. If there is any truth in the saying that “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote”, then you who are not registered and do not vote are responsible for any clowns that end up in parliament. Now is also the time to notify the IEC that you intend to vote outside South Africa, and now’s the time that political parties have to submit their candidate lists and pay their deposits to the IEC. They have until March 12 to do so, so behind the scenes at this moment there is some furious jockeying for positions going on, trust me.

The deposit you have to pay if you’re a political party and you want to contest the election, is something like R45,000 per province and R200,000 for national contestation. So, you’ll need over R600,000 to be fully represented on the ballot. This, presumably, is to keep out the frivolous and ore wacky individuals and parties, who decide on a whim to “have a go”; the sort of blokes who one night in the pub decide, “What the hell, we may as well have a bash, just for fun, hey, I bet I get more votes than you, hey Jimmy?”

However, this deposit has been interpreted as a “barrier of entry” by our old pal Julius, who sees it as discrimination against new, and presumably poorer, political parties. The EFF has launched an urgent application in the North Gauteng High Court, seeking an interdict against having to pay a deposit. I dunno, if the EFF wins its case, then the blokes down at the pub, surely, can use the same argument. Any association, or club or society with a constitution could put candidates forward to contest the election. You’d end up with a ballot paper as long as a toilet roll, and probably worth as much. On the other hand, why should money be the condition of true democracy?

Anyway, like I said, they’ve got until March 12 to sort that out.

April Fool’s Day, I kid you not, April 1 is the deadline for objections to candidate lists. I don’t know on what grounds you can object to someone appearing on a party list. The fact that he or she is a fool is obviously not reason enough. Did I read that if you have been declared insolvent you cannot stand for election?

The next dates of significance in the lead-up to the election are between April 7 and 17 during which you can apply for a special vote, and if granted you will cast your special vote on May 5&6. Overseas voters, who are allowed to vote this time, will cast their votes on April 30, and then all the rest of us will make our marks on Election Day, May 7, between 7:00am and 9:00pm.

The whole timetable aims for a free and fair election, and overseeing the whole process is the Independent Electoral Commission – the IEC. But I have to remind you that the IEC has been unable to hold a simple municipal by-election in Ward 22 of AbaQulusi Municipality for a whole year now. I have never in my life used the word prevaricate, but the IEC’s behaviour in the matter of Ward 22 can only be described as prevarication.

The IEC’s behaviour in the matter of Ward 22 does not inspire confidence. There were over 1,500 cases of irregular registration that the IEC all but reluctantly removed from Ward 22’s voters roll, and not one of them has been prosecuted. Not one. These registrations were undoubtedly orchestrated by a political party or political parties – none has been sufficiently investigated.

And the IEC officials who actually registered these 1,500-plus irregular voters, have they been investigated? Not that we’ve heard. Were they bribed to turn a blind eye? Who knows, and the IEC doesn’t seem to care.

Edmund Burke put it best: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Amen to that.