Faced with the conundrum of conducting free, fair and safe elections amid Covid-19, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has decided to approach the electoral court to postpone the by-elections scheduled to take place across eight municipal wards on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s elections were supposed to be the final by-elections to be conducted by the commission ahead of the local government elections scheduled for October 27.
The by-elections were to have taken place in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and Western Cape across 48 voting stations and involving 71,305 registered voters. An estimated 40 candidates from 14 political parties and three independent candidates were scheduled to contest the polls.
The move by the IEC to approach the electoral court follows the implementation of the adjusted level four lockdown over a 14-day period which started on Monday. The restrictions ban political gatherings.
The IEC has previously successfully approached the electoral court to postpone by-elections during the first and the second waves of the pandemic.
“These by-elections were safely conducted during lulls in the pandemic when restrictions were at level 1 during November and December 2020 and again during March, April and May 2021,” the IEC said in a statement on Monday.
Approaching the electoral court to postpone by-elections is in line with section 159 of the constitution which stipulates that the term of a municipal council may be no longer than five years, and that an election must be held within 90 days of the date that its term expired.
Meanwhile, the Moseneke inquiry held its first public hearings on the viability of the October 27 municipal polls on Monday. The inquiry, headed by retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, has been tasked by the IEC to investigate whether the local government elections can be conducted in a free and fair manner amid the pandemic.
The Moseneke inquiry is expected to release its non-binding report on July 21 shortly after the voter registration weekend scheduled for July 17 and 18.
IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo told the Moseneke inquiry on Monday that the electoral body is not “hell-bent” on conducting the polls in October and is awaiting the inquiry’s report before deciding. He added that the IEC would approach the Constitutional Court to postpone the elections “if the trajectory of the pandemic is such that the mortality rate increases and people are afraid to go out.”
The inquiry heard from various civil society organisations on Monday that the likelihood of free, fair and safe elections amid Covid-19 was slim considering the projected trajectory of the pandemic in SA.
The seven-day average of new daily cases nationally has overtaken the peak of the first wave in July 2020, and will soon overtake the peak of the second wave experienced in January 2021, with Gauteng accounting for more than 60% of new cases.
With SA expected to reach the peak of the third wave in four to six weeks and the slow pace of vaccinations, the Progressive Health Forum’s Aslam Dasoo said with the current rate of 80,000 doses a day on week days or about 60,000 doses a day when the whole week is taken into account, the country is unlikely to reach herd immunity by the October 27 polls.
The existing restrictions on gatherings, wearing of masks and hand sanitising are insufficient to protect voters and IEC staff from infections, Dasoo said.
Additionally, there is an increased risk of Covid-19 fatigue among the population which could result in more defiance of regulations by voters and political parties, Dasoo said.
While the ANC and the DA have indicated their support for the polls along with the restrictions placed on gatherings, the EFF has called for the defiance of the regulations “until there is a clear vaccination plan for the whole country”.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.