Ward elections not entirely fair

THE ward committee process has finally been completed with the election on June 21.

The sound bytes and press release by the municipality lead us to believe the process was successful and achieved the desired results.

One very strange statistic given was that 11 of the 60 wards were uncontested.

My mind struggles with maths and around the fact that 11 of the 60 wards in Port Elizabeth had exactly 10 nominations, not 11 or 12 or any other number confounds me completely.

I am pretty sure lots of behind the scenes dealings took place to ensures this perfect outcome in these wards.

The idea communicated to the participants in this process is that each voting district in the ward needs to be represented and relevant competencies where available included, such as youth, women, education and disabilities. The day before the election was to be held, where more than one candidate had availed themselves in a particular voting district it was decided that all the candidates would appear on the ballot and not just those competing in a particular voting district.

The net result is that there will be many voting districts not represented on the ward committees.

This seems rather unfortunate given the diverse needs and demographics of many of the wards in our city.

So member of the mayoral committee, your press release isn’t really correct.

The needs of many of our people will not be served by these committees, from those elected last year to those dominated by a particular voting district.

Intrigued, Port Elizabeth