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Readiness for 2011 Local Government Elections (LGE)

Presentation by the Chief Electoral Officer Adv. Pansy Tlakula

PC on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA)

22 MARCH 2011

Legislative framework• Electoral Commission Act (No. 51 of 1996)

• Electoral Act (No. 73 of 1998)

• Local Government: Municipal Structures Act (No. 117 of 1998)

• Local Government: Municipal Electoral Amendment Act, 2010

• Electoral Regulations

Electoral system

• Mixed system: closed PR List and ward constituency

• 2 municipal elections have been held: 2000 and 2006

Major legislative amendments• Section 55: Special voting• Section 65: Objections material to result of election

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Special Votes• Section 55• “Any voter who is unable on voting day to cast his or her

vote at the voting station in the voting district where he or she is registered, may in the prescribed manner, apply and be allowed prior to voting day to cast a special vote within that voting district.”

Objections material to result of election• Section 65• New sect 65 defines what “any aspect of an election”

means, enhances the powers of the EC when deciding an objection, reviews the period within which the objection must be disposed of, clarify the powers of the Electoral Court, and most importantly, re-regulates the process to enhance effectiveness and fairness.

• Objections would now be filed before or after the results;

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Objections material to result of election• And includes alleged unlawful—• (i) interference with or obstruction of election activities

or• processes in the vicinity of, at or in a voting station; or• (ii) interference with or influencing, intimidation or

obstruction of• voters or prospective voters in the vicinity of, at or in a

voting• station.

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Voter Registration

• Two registration weekend activities were conducted:– 5 and 6 February 2011; and – 5 and 6 March 2011

• Before the registration weekend of 5 and 6 February 2011, there were 22 667 345 voters on the voters’ roll

• Following the first registration weekend, the Voters’ Roll stood at 23 161 975

• Following the second registration weekend, the voter’s roll currently stands at 23,6 million voters

Voter Registration Cont…• Over the two registration weekends a total of 2 731 967

persons registered or re-registered as voters apart from numerous others who verified their details on the voters’ rolls that were available at every voting station for public inspection and this was a very good outcome.

• The provincial spread of new registrations for the two registration weekends indicated that most occurred in KZN (285 208) followed by Gauteng (200 751) and the Eastern Cape (157 581).

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1st voter registration weekend: 5 & 6 February

Province New Reg Re-Reg Same VD

Re-Reg VD Move

Total

Eastern Cape 88 890 30 593 106 182 225 665

Free State 20 718 11 799 37 828 70 345

Gauteng 91 042 19 973 152 418 263 433

KZN 122 603 27 278 133 438 283 319

Limpopo 53 588 11 637 65 752 130 977

Mpumalanga 16 846 4 527 30 773 52 146

North West 30 199 10 430 44 898 85 527

N. Cape 15 116 3 676 21 022 39 814

W. Cape 46 741 8 303 66 561 121 605

485 743 128 216 658 872 1 272 831

1st voter Registration Weekend Cont..

•A total of 1 406 702 voters registered over the first registration weekend.

•KwaZulu-Natal had the highest number of new registrations with 134 864 followed by Gauteng with 91 708, and Eastern Cape with 90 933.

2nd voter registration weekend: 5 & 6 March

• 1 325 265 persons visited the 20 864 voting stations that were opened for the second voter registration of 5 and 6 March to register as first time voters or to re-register.

• 547 651 new registrations took place; which is some 41% of the registration activities for the weekend. 

• The highest number of new registrations for the last weekend were in KZN (150 344) followed by Gauteng (109 043), Western Cape (68 297) and the Eastern Cape (66 648).

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Current registration figures

Province Municipalities DMAs Wards Voting Districts

Registered Voters

 

 

Eastern Cape 45 0 715 4,560 3,107,104

Free State 24 0 317 1,320 1,384,776

Gauteng 12 0 508 2,480 5,586,903

KwaZulu-Natal 61 0 828 4,358 4,640,172

Limpopo 30 0 543 2,781 2,337,316

Mpumalanga 21 0 402 1,565 1,715,296

North West 23 0 383 1,570 1,576,210

Northern Cape 32 0 194 655 571,591

Western Cape 30 0 387 1,570 2,699,625

Totals 278* 0 4,277 20,859 23,618,993

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Voters’ roll comparisonVoters’ Roll Verified Voters % Increase

1999 NPE 18 172 751

2000 LGE 18 476 516 1.67%

2004 NPE 20 674 926 11.9%

2006 LGE 21 054 957 1.84%

2009 NPE 23 181 997 9.18%

2011 LGE 23 618, 993

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Progress to date

• 19941994: 10 000 voting stations, no voters’ roll• 19991999: 14 650 VDs, 18,1 million registered voters

(avg 1 240 reg voters per VD)• 20002000: 14 988 VDs, 18,4 million reg voters (1 233)• 20042004: 16 966 VDs, 20,6 million reg voters (1 219)• 20062006: 18 873 VDs, 21 million reg voters (1 116)• 20092009: 19 726 VDs, 23,1 million reg voters (1 171)• 20112011: 20, 859VDs,23,7 million reg voters

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Civic and Democracy Education (CDE)• The Commission is implementing CDE using:

– Skilled facilitators at local, provincial and national level. – Partnership with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) –

sectoral CSOs (Democracy, Human Rights, Peace and Elections) with educational mandates complementing those of the Commission.

– Collaborative Stakeholder Engagement (C9s, state departments, private sector, MDDA, Unions, etc) and Training of Facilitators at all levels

– Collaboration with organisations dealing with special sectoral stakeholders (SANCB, DEAFSA, etc.)

– Outreach Projects

Communication Awareness Campaigns• Worked with media houses to train journalists covering elections to

ensure understanding of the electoral processes;• Working with community, commercial, and the public broadcaster

on programming of communication awareness and voter education campaigns on both radio and television.

• Radio remains the leading disseminator of information and campaigns correlates with this reality.

• New initiatives that have contributed to reaching the youth – these are:– Twitter – www.twitter/iecloveyoursa– Mobile site – mobi.elections.org.za

• Maintaining the toll-free number, website and sms facilities, all of which have generated significant hits since the beginning of this year

Election Timetable• On 03 March, the Acting President Kgalema Motlanthe announced

the date of election to be 18 May 2011.

• The Voters’ Roll was closed on 10 March following proclamation of the date of election by the Acting Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr. Nathi Mthethwa on 10 March.

 

• The Commission consulted with the Party National Liaison Committee on the Election Time-Table on 11 March 2011.

• The Election Time –Table was published in the Government Gazette on 11 March 2011.

Election Timetable

The election timetable outlines and gives time frames for the following processes;

The Voters’ Roll to be used for the 2011 municipal elections was certified and made available for inspection on 18 March 2011.

By 17h00 on 25 March, the Political Parties and Independent candidates who intend to contest the 2011 municipal elections must notify the Commission of their intention to participate in these elections.

By the same time on that day, Political Parties and nominators of independent candidates must nominate ward and independent candidates and submit party lists of candidates.

Payment of the prescribed deposit must also be made on that day by 17h00.

Election Timetable

The election timetable outlines and gives time frames for the following processes; Cont…

•Political Parties or independent candidates will be notified of any non-compliance regarding outstanding documents on 4 April

•Political Parties and independent ward candidates will have until 17h00 on 8 April to submit any outstanding documents to the Commission.

•The Commission will compile a list of the parties that will be contesting the elections, and certify their candidate lists on 12 April, The Commission will also on that day compile a list of candidates that will be contesting in each ward.

Election Timetable

The election timetable outlines and gives time frames for the following processes; Cont…

•15 April will be the starting date for the submission of applications for special votes.

•On 21 April, the Commission will give notice that the copies of a list of voting stations, and their addresses are available at municipal offices and will also give notice of the routes for mobile voting stations, including locations and estimated times of stopping.

•On 29 April, the Commission will issue certificates to persons whose names appear on a party list and to each ward candidate.

•At 17h00 on 3 May, the applications for special votes will close

Election Timetable

The election timetable outlines and gives time frames for the following processes; Cont…

•From 08h00 to 17h00 on 16 May, registered voters who qualify for special voting will cast their special votes at the voting station in the voting district where they are registered.

•From 08h00 to 17h00 on 16 and 17 May, the Commission’s voting officers will visit the homes of registered voters who qualify to cast special votes and who had applied for home visits.

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Election depositsTo contest an election parties or independent ward candidates

must pay an election deposit

Election Type LGE 2006 LGE 2011

Metro Council PR List and Wards

R3 000 R4 000

Local Council PR List and Wards

R2 000 R2 500

District Council PR List R1 000 R1 500

Ward – Independent Ward R500 R1 000

Candidate of a party that has not submitted a PR list

Ward R500 R1 000

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Province VD CountEastern Cape                                                4

560 Free State                                                1

320 Gauteng                                                2

480 KwaZulu-Natal                                                4

358 Limpopo                                                2

781 Mpumalanga                                                1

565 North West                                                1

570 Northern Cape                                                  

655 Western Cape                                                1

570                                             20 859

Voting Districts

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ProvinceNumber of Votingstations

Number of Substations

Eastern Cape 49 99Gauteng 370 1189KwaZulu-Natal 46 131Limpopo 10 28North West 2 4Western Cape 19 53

496 1504

Voting Centres

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Level Number

National 108

Eastern Cape 9

Free State 2

Gauteng 9

KwaZulu-Natal 3

Mpumalanga 6

Limpopo 7

Northern Cape 1

North West 4

Western Cape 27

Total 176

Registered Parties

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Election officials

• Approx. 200 000 election officials for the elections• Training programme being rolled out and close to 200 000

officials will be trained before voting day• Criteria for the appointment of election officials (presiding and

deputy presiding officers, in particular) include:– Presiding (and deputy presiding) officers must not in the last

five years have held political office or been a candidate in an election or have been politically active for a political party

– must not in the last five years have held office in an organization that has party political affiliations or aims.

• Party Liaison Committees (PLCs) consulted on appointment of presiding officers before contracts are concluded

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Voter turnout in our previous elections

NPE 1999 89.3%

LGE 2000 48.1%

NPE 2004 76.7%

LGE 2006 48.4%

NPE 2009 77.3%

LGE 2011

Challenges• Generally lower voter turn-out in municipal elections

(despite an even higher registered population for the 2009 National and Provincial Elections);

• Disputed ward and municipal boundaries;

• More complex logistical demands (also the multiplicity of ballot papers making Braille Template extremely difficult)

• Parallel structures within political parties

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Thank you!