New elections bosses likely by next year

Three commissioners’ terms come to an end

The terms of three commissioners at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) come to an end this year and the trio will have to have their terms extended or be replaced before next year’s vote.

This means the elections could potentially be run by a mostly new team of commissioners with three of five on their way out.

Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the process to replace them or extend their terms is driven by the chief justice who, along with a panel of chapter nine institution leaders, will conduct interviews and submit a short list to parliament.

Parliament will then make recommen- dations to President Cyril Ramaphosa who will then make the final appointments.

The three outgoing commissioners are Bongani Finca, Terry Tselane and Thami Makhanya.

Mamabolo hailed the past weekend, during which the IEC ran its first registration drive, as a success.

More than 2.7 million voters pitched up to register or update their registration details.

From these, 490520 were voters registering for the first time.

Gauteng registered the most new voters, however, it still lags behind nationally in terms of the percentage of residents registered to vote.

The IEC said this could be attributed to the fluid nature of the population in Gauteng, the province that boasts high levels of immigration.

The province has also replaced KwaZuluNatal as the most populous province in the country.