Cosatu, former IEC boss favour poll postponement

THE IEC inquiry chaired by retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke has continued to hear opposing opinions on whether the IEC can safely hold local government elections.

South Africans will head to the polls on October 27, but the questions posed by the global pandemic have weighed heavy on the prospects.

Yesterday, Justice Moseneke heard further opinions on whether the elections should proceed.

He is expected to file his report and recommendations by July 21 before the official proclamation by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Former IEC chairperson Terry Tselane, who now runs his own elections management company, the Institute for Election Management Services, motivated strongly for an election postponement until May next year.

He said electoral legislation allowed for a postponement but also for the continued operation of municipal councils even after their expired term.

Tselane said allowing the vaccination programme to pick up steam and for enough people to be vaccinated would give voters the needed comfort to go out and vote.

The former IEC official also raised the conundrum that the IEC would face in the coming days.

The commission has set out July 17 and 18 for voter registration, and Tselane said these would likely have to be postponed along with the postponement of the elections.

He estimated that the IEC would spend R400 million on voter registration and it was unlikely the organisation would have the funds to hold another in future.

However, the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (Eisa) said a postponement of the elections to a future date might not work as intended.

Its head of governance, Grant Masterson, said evidence observed in other countries such as Ethiopia, where elections were postponed, showed that it was unpredictable when a conducive election time may arise.

Masterson clarified that the organisation could not speak to the science of whether a wave of the pandemic could be possible in future, but raised concerns that a current postponement may motivate for another.

"There is no sweet spot that can be predicted into the future. We have looked at countries that have postponed elections, countries that adopt a postponement have gone on to adopt further postponements,” he said.

Justice Moseneke raised the point that a future postponement may allow for vaccinations to continue and for people to be protected from the prospect of death.

Matthew Parks, from Cosatu, said the organisation was calling for a postponement to February next year.

The organisation said the IEC should approach the Constitutional Court and ask for a condonation.

This would allow the vaccination programme to continue and for people to feel comfortable with voting.

Parks said that this would also advantage political parties who have found it hard to campaign because of the pandemic.

Moseneke will today hear from political parties.