By: Ofentse Seanego
As the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) goes with vote counting, the turnout of the 2021 Local Government Elections paints a bleak picture for democracy.
The once cherished right to vote, which was attained after a gruesome fight with the apartheid regime appears to no longer to many who find themselves disheartened by those in government.
The CSIR said only 48% of the electorate was estimated to have voted compared with a 57% turnout in 2016. The IEC’s Sy Mamabolo called upon all leaders of political parties to act and speak responsibly as the result collation process unfolds.
Also read: 10 000 soldiers deployed for elections
“As you will recall, the Commission had anticipated the prospect of a lower voter turnout already in July and approached the Constitutional Court. Nonetheless, the Commission implemented an extensive education and communication campaign to ensure that voters turnout to out. This included educational programmes that assured voters that it will safe to be at a voting station,” he said.
Mamabolo added that it was important to realise that voter turnout is a multifaceted phenomenon influenced by different factors. Some of the elements that motivate voters to go relate to factors outside of the purview of the Commission such as disruptions to services, levels of trust in political institutions.
“Regrettably, unwarranted attacks on the Commission could potentially also influence voter turnout. In the analysis of voter turnout, the COVID context in which the election happened should not be forgotten. The national message has been that people must not be in congregate environments,” Mamabolo added.
Also read: Blood spills in SA’s dog-eat-dog elections
Despite the poor turnout, the results have been trickling into the Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Pretoria.
The IEC said it had estimated that 90 per cent of results would be finalized by evening. The balance of 10 per cent would take another 24 hours to complete.
Mamabolo said the Northern Cape had completed 74% of its results, followed by Western Cape at 46%, and in the third position comes Free State at 26%.
“The rest of the provinces completion rate range between 15 and 37%. The result capturing involves are a number of processes including the verification of the result slips, the capturing, scanning, and the auditing of the results. An independent audit firm have been procured for purposes of auditing the results,” he said.
The IEC also lauded the Voter Management Devices (VMD) despite the many reported glitches. Mamabolo said they believe that voter management devices were the mainstay equipment for this election.
He is of the view that the devices have ensured that they continue to meet their Constitutional Court’s injunction that voters only vote in the wards in which they are registered and that every voter must have an address on the voters’ roll.
“12 186 869 were processed through the VMD’s over the two days of special votes as well as election day. This means that we are confident that these voters voted in the wards in which they are ordinarily resident. This is important control measure in a local government election. Through the use of the technology, the Commission was able for the first time to register voters and simultaneously capture their addresses during the registration weekend in September. Address capturing would have taken months to complete without the VMD as was previously the case,” he said.
This was despite political parties having laid complaints regarding the faulty machines.
