Call for parties to play it cool
POLITICAL parties in the province not only support the call by Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba to tone down their campaign rhetoric, but emphasise that doing so plays a vital role in ensuring a peaceful and fair electoral process.
Election observers from religious and civil groups have called on parties in the Western Cape to exert cool-headedness, warning that character assassination is as devastating as physical violence.
Makgoba, who chairs the Electoral Code of Conduct Observer Commission (ECCOC), said: “A free and fair election is not determined only by what happens on election day, but by attitudes and activities in the run-up to the election. While campaigning is fundamental to any election, character assassination is as devastating as physical abuse.
“We call on political parties to tone down their campaign rhetoric.”
The purpose of ECCOC is to monitor and encourage compliance with the Electoral Code of Conduct, which supports an environment of free and fair participation in the electoral process by political parties, voters and citizens in general.
EFF provincial spokesperson Melikaya Xego said: “In this voice of reasoning we should respond in a very positive way to ensure we remain on track of the goal. At the end of the day we want a violence-free election.”
Good party leader Patricia de Lille also threw her weight behind the archbishop’s call and added: “As political parties we need to remind ourselves to stay calm to ensure that the election is peaceful.”
ANC Western Cape spokesperson Dennis Cruywagen reiterated the party was committed to a peaceful, clean and fair election contest, adding they were trying to play the ball, not the man.