BRIEFING BY MS BRIGALIA BAM AND CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER, PROF MANDLA MCHUNU

12 February 1999

BACKGROUND

The new IEC was established in terms of Chapter 9 of the Constitution of the South Africa and the Electoral Commission Act 51 of 1996.

The Electoral Commission Act provides for an open and transparent process for the nomination of Electoral Commissioners to ensure the constitutionally guaranteed independence of the Commission.

Following public nominations and comment, short listed candidates were interviewed by a panel chaired by the President of the Constitutional Court, and comprising the Public Protector, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission and the Chairperson of the Commission on Gender Equality.

Nine persons were recommended to a committee of the National Assembly. Five were selected and approved by the National Assembly in June 1997. In July 1997, the Acting President formally appointed Mr Justice J C Kriegler (Chairperson), Ms Brigalia Bam (Vice-Chairperson), Ms Thoko Mpumlwana, Mr S S J van der Merwe and Prof H W Vilakazi as Electoral Commissioners.

On 23 July 1997, the President with the concurrence of the Cabinet, designated Justice Johann Kriegler as Chairperson of the Commission and Ms Brigalia Bam as Vice-Chairperson.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Professor Mandla Mchunu, was appointed in 1 November 1997.

RESIGNATION OF JUSTICE KRIEGLER

Justice Johann Kriegler resigned as Chairperson on 25 January 1999. He handed his resignation to President Nelson Mandela. Commissioners issued a statement stating that they regret that Judge Johann Kriegler resigned. Vice-Chairperson, Ms Brigalia Bam, was appointed Acting Chairperson.

ORGANISATION AND STRUCTURE

VISION

The Independent Electoral Commission aims to strengthen constitutional democracy through the delivery and management of regular free and fair elections in which every voter is able to record his or her informed choice

MISSION

The Electoral Commission is a permanent body created by the Constitution to promote and safeguard democracy in South Africa.

Although publicly funded and accountable to Parliament, the Commission is independent of the Government.

The immediate task of the Electoral Commission is the impartial management of free and fair elections at all levels of Government

OBJECTIVES

• Empowering people and communities to participate in the political process
• Promoting accountability and responsiveness by political parties to the electorate
• Promoting conditions conducive to free and fair elections
• Managing low cost, high impact electoral processes

CORE VALUES

• Fairness, integrity and impartiality
• Transparency and accountability
• Participation and inclusiveness
• Accessibility
• Maximum effectiveness
• Capacity building through education
• Frugality in use of resources
• Atmosphere of co-operation

STRUCTURE OF THE IEC

The IEC is headed by five Commissioners appointed by Parliament. The National Office is headed by the Chief Electoral Officer, who is assisted by two Deputy Chief Electoral Officers and the Finance Manager, who collectively make up the Executive Committee.

The IEC is structured along three levels: national, provincial and local.

At the national level, the headquarters in Pretoria has a staff of 178 full-time officials.

Provincial offices are headed by Provincial Electoral Officers. The nine provincial offices have a total of 142 full-time officials. There are 443 local electoral officers (LEOs) representing 843 municipalities. More than 72 500 temporary personnel were used for voter registration.

For the election about 220 000 volunteers will be used on a temporary basis. Those who have already gained experience in the voter registration process will form the core staff for the election.

CHALLENGES

• Need to establish organisation and deliver
• Time constraints
• Need for consultants to speed up the process
• Lack of skilled electoral staff, especially women
• Rural/urban reality, i.e. infrastructure
• Literacy
• Need for democracy development
• Political tolerance
• Need to build a staff profile reflecting South Africa's demographics
• Recruitment and human resource practice to ensure previously disadvantaged individuals gain access to opportunities based on their potential

CRITICAL ISSUES

• Delivering the election at the local level with community participation
• Elections are about people
• Emphasis on communication
• Involvement of civil society
• Encouraging the role of political parties in promoting democracy
• Use of modern technology to transmit data and enhance transparency and ensure integrity of the electoral process
• Ensuring equal access to the electoral process to both rural and urban voters through the use of the wide area network and zip-zip machines

KEY MILESTONES

DELIMITATION

Delimitation refers to the drawing up of electoral boundaries and needs a Geographical Information System (GIS) - an electronic map of the country divided into voting districts.

This includes census figures and topographical features.

The GIS created in partnership with the Department of Land Affairs, the Chief Surveyor General and Statistics South Africa is proving to be an invaluable tool in the Delimitation of Voting Districts as well as development planning as a whole.

During the process of delimitation, 14 436 voting districts were delimited, each consisting of one voting station.

807 Party Liaison Committees were established and to approve the voting district boundaries and voting stations.

Subsequent to the first round of Registration, 2 500 voting station amendments were made and these stations were utilised in the second round of registration.

A similar figure of voting station amendments are expected prior to the third round of registration.

In line with the Commission's policy of taking democracy to the people, hundreds of fixed voting stations will be converted to mobile stations for both registration and voting purposes. Even though these stations will move from one point to another within a voting district, only one voter's roll will be utilised to eliminate the changes for fraud.

PARTY REGISTRATION

To date, 36 political parties have registered. However, this does not necessarily mean that all registered parties would contest the election.

PARTY FUNDING

Government funds were allocated to represented political parties in terms of the Public Funding of Represented Political Parties Act, 1997 (Act 103 of 1997).

A total of R52 103 000 was made available from the fund set up in terms of Act 104 of 1997. Eight political parties as set out below shared this amount:

1. R30,897,681 - African National Congress
2. R10,481,069 - National Party
3. R 5,142, 284 - Inkatha Freedom Party
4. R 2,151, 086 - Freedom Front
5. R 1, 689,346 - Democratic Party
6. R 887,938 - Pan Africanist Congress
7. R 661,168 - African Christian Democratic Party
8. R 192 ,428 - Minority Front

VOTER REGISTRATION

Voter registration started in the five northern provinces of Northern Cape, Gauteng, North West, Northern Province and Mpumalanga from 27 to 29 November, 1998.

It was continued in the four southern provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Free State and Western Cape from 4 to 6 December, 1998.

A total of 9,7 million potential voters registered during the first phase last year.

In the next phase, voter registration took place simultaneously in all nine provinces from 29 to 31 January this year, bringing the total number of voters registered throughout the country to 14,3 million.

VOTERS' ROLL

The final date for the registration of voters will be Sunday, 7 March 1999, and the voters' roll will be completed by the end of April this year.

BUDGET

The total allocation for 1998/1999 amounted to R640 million.

The Government has committed a total of R713,5 million for the 1999/2000 financial year, also providing for shortfalls in respect of identified risks/contingencies to be dealt with through the normal budget process.

WIDE AREA NETWORK

Communication across South Africa as a whole is difficult because of the remoteness of certain areas, it was decided that a satellite-linked computer-based communications system would be the best solution.

More than 1 300 computers and printers have been distributed to Local Electoral Officers throughout the country, even in the most remote rural areas. These are linked via satellite to the headquarters in Pretoria.

This Wide Area Network (WAN) system ensures that even the most remote areas are in 24-hour contact with the headquarters.

In addition to the 443 LEOs, all nine Provincial Electoral Officers and 11 South African Local Government Association offices are also connected to the WAN.

ELECTION TIMETABLE

In terms of Section 17 of the Electoral Act, 1998, the IEC, after consultation with political liaison committees, will determine a timetable to apply to the National and Provincial Elections later this year. The timetable will set out cut-off dates for:

• The notice that lists of addresses of voting stations are available for inspection
• The submission of lists of candidates
• Notices of non-compliance
• Inspection of lists of candidates and accompanying documents for objections, decision on objections, appeals against decisions, deciding appeals
• Lists of parties and candidates entitled to contest election and final list of candidates, issue of certificates to candidates and determining of boundaries of voting stations.