Johannesburg – The Independent Electoral Commission says it is “technically” ready to deliver the local elections on October 27, under the conditions of the deadly Covid-19 global pandemic.
IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini said their readiness was based on an assessment conducted with health and disaster management authorities and experts.
“Based on the Constitution, the law, operational readiness for the elections and a thorough assessment of the current pandemic conditions, the Commission is of the view that we are technically ready to deliver the elections. Therefore, we believe the 2021 Municipal Elections should proceed as things currently stand,” he said.
Mashinini said the commission drew extensively from the experiences of more than 100 countries and territories around the world that have successfully held elections under COVID-19 conditions.
Section 159 of the Constitution provided that a term of a municipal council was 5 years and that elections must take place within 90 days of expiry of the term.
The last municipal elections were held on 3 August 2016. This meant for the 2021 municipal elections that window starts on 4 August and ends on 1 November 2021.
But as the number of Covid-19 deaths and infections increased, the commission recently appointed former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke to conduct an independent review of what constituted “free and fair elections” under Covid-19 conditions, following calls for the polls to be postponed.
“Preparing for our country’s fifth municipal elections under such uncertain and unpredictable conditions has therefore presented the commission with one of the most difficult balancing acts in our history,” Mashinini said.
“The commission is literally walking a tightrope: on the one side is the tyranny of the elections becoming a super-spreader event, leading to further loss of human life; on the other side is the tyranny of the failure to adhere to the dictates of our constitution, leading to democratic back-sliding and setting an undesirable precedent for the future,” he added.
Voting registration is scheduled between 8am and 5pm on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 July 2021. South Africa has 257 municipalities, comprising 8 metros, 205 local and 44 district municipalities, which have not changed since the 2016 local elections.
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