Johannesburg – The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is still on course to deliver local government elections between August and November this year.
This is the message from IEC deputy chief electoral officer Mawethu Mosery amid repeated calls by the EFF to postpone local polls and merge them with the general elections in 2024.
EFF leader Julius Malema this week said the current climate would not allow for an open campaign and engagement with the prospective voters due to the spread of Covid-19, adding that his organisation would engage other political parties on the matter.
But Mosery told Sunday World that the postponement of the elections is limited by law.
“In this instance, the first prescript is a five-year term of office and the second prescript is holding an election within 90 days on expiry of that five-year term,” he said.
“The IEC stands ready to deliver the election within the given 90-day window from the third August 2021 to the second November 2021, as would be proclaimed by the appropriate authority.”
This comes as the country grapples with a surge in daily infections of the global pandemic and as it prepares for a massive rollout of vaccination of 40-million people by the end of this year.
Some of the areas that are expected to be hotly contested during the local polls are hotspots of the virus.
They include Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and the Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape. Mosery said the planning for local elections was in “full operation” and that the body’s early activities – which include providing voting stations with non-security voting material – were continuing. The IEC was satisfied with the developments of the preparations for elections at this stage, Mosery said.
He noted that the country’s legal framework allowed for a short postponement of voting not election, adding that voting must be within the 90 days of the expiry of the term.
“It will also not be a blanket postponement [in the event IEC decides to postpone voting because of Covid-19], it must refer to one voting area provided the free and fair elections are not possible.”
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