Voters generally highly satisfied – IEC
The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) said based on the 13 750 interviews conducted on Election Day it found that the public was overwhelmingly confident that the elections were free and fair.
Voters were generally highly satisfied with their voting experience in the 2019 National and Provincial Elections and overwhelmingly believed the election procedures to be free and fair.
This is according to the results of the Election Satisfaction Survey conducted on Election Day 8 May 2019 by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).
The survey was conducted at a sample of 300 voting stations countrywide selected to be nationally representative. At each voting station 50 voters were interviewed across four different time slots to ensure a fair reflection of the different conditions during the day.
The findings of the survey showed that:
• 97 per cent of voters expressed satisfaction in the secrecy of their vote;
• 95 per cent believed that the election procedures were free and fair;
• 96 per cent expressed general satisfaction with the quality of services rendered by election officials;
• 96 per cent expressed satisfaction with safety and security at voting stations;
• 95 per cent were satisfied with the ballot papers and found it easy to find their party of choice; and
• 84 per cent were confident or completely confident that their vote would be accurately counted.
In terms of overall confidence in the Electoral Commission, 92 per cent of voters indicated that they trust or strongly trust the Electoral Commission in general.
In terms of political party tolerance, 64 per cent of voters said parties were “very tolerant” of one another and 21 per cent said they were “somewhat tolerant”. This is a slight increase over 2016 (61 percent very tolerant and 21 per cent somewhat tolerant).
In terms of accessibility, the survey found that 68 per cent of voters took less than 15 minutes to reach their voting stations (64 per cent in 2016) with 22 per cent taking between 16 and 30 minutes (23 per cent in 2016), 7 per cent taking between 31 and 60 minutes (8 per cent in 2016) and 3 per cent more than an hour (same in 2016). On average voters waited 16 minutes to vote (17 minutes in 2016 and 16 minutes in 2014).
In its report the HSRC said that based on the 13 750 interviews conducted on Election Day it found that the public was overwhelmingly confident that the elections were free and fair.
What are your thoughts? Email us at randfonteinherald@caxton.co.za.
