President Cyril Ramaphosa says there are no plans to push back the local government polls despite growing concerns around the freeness and fairness of the elections which are scheduled to take place on October 27.
“As there is no determination of a postponement at this stage, no other date has been considered as an election date,” Ramaphosa said during a question-and-answer session in parliament on Thursday.
The upcoming local elections, which focus on the layer of government with the biggest influence on peoples’ daily lives, are seen by many observers as a vote on how the governing ANC has handled the Covid-19 crisis which led to an unprecedented economic collapse.
SA has been in a state of disaster and various phases of lockdown since March 2020, which resulted in extreme restrictions on the movement of people. Some of the measures, such as a ban on the sale of hot, cooked food during the early stages of the lockdown, were widely condemned and seen as unnecessary in the fight against the pandemic.
For months gatherings have been prohibited or limited, which has affected the political activities required to ensure that elections are free and fair.
Smaller political parties including the EFF want the elections to be postponed. The red berets argue that proceeding with the polls amid a pandemic and government’s painfully slow vaccination rollout would be reckless and lead to a surge in infections due to super-spreader events.
But the DA, the country’s main opposition party, insists the polls should proceed.
“Our opponents are trying their best to wiggle their way out of it. They are either not prepared for this campaign or they fear what voters might say to them on that day. So they talk about postponing and they make up excuses. But we will have none of that. The DA is marching confidently towards October 27,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said recently.
The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), the country’s election management body, is expecting a report by former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke which will look into the feasibility of holding the local government polls under current lockdown regulations. That report is due to be released before the end of July, but its recommendations will effectively not be binding as the IEC could ignore the findings.
Ramaphosa said the government continued to keep a close eye on the pandemic and how this could affect elections.
“But then again we have an independent institution [the IEC] which out of concern [about the issues raised] has said it would like an inquiry to determine whether the holding of elections can be considered free and fair ... Let us trust the system and the judge,” Ramaphosa said.
The EFF has argued that postponing the elections would present an opportunity to merge all of SA’s three elections, which would cut costs. This means the terms of current councillors will have to be extended by up to three years. However, the constitution states that elections must be held within 90 days of the expiry of the council’s terms of office.
Postponement of the elections might require an amendment to the constitution, with a two-thirds majority vote in parliament.
SA’s national and provincial polls to elect MPs and members of provincial legislatures for a five-year term take place on the same day every five years. Local government elections are usually held two and half years after the national and provincial polls, with councillors also elected for five-year terms.
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