Six political parties and eight independent candidates pledged themselves to tolerance and campaigning free from intimidation at a ceremony in Potchefstroom, North West, today.
These parties and independent candidates intend contesting the seven wards in the Tlokwe by-elections set for Wednesday, 24 February 2016.
Vice Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mr Terry Tselane thanked the members of the municipal party liaison committee – including the various independent candidates – for working together to allow this event to happen today. “This spirit of cooperation is exactly what it is behind free and fair elections and the Code of Conduct. The mandate of the Electoral Commission is to deliver free and fair elections. We are cognisant of the fact that such an election can only be possible if the environment is conducive. Critical factors that make this possible are peace, stability and political tolerance. This is the joint responsibility of all stakeholders in an election. Experience has taught us that freedom of speech can only occur if there is a system that protects it. That is why our electoral law has emerged with a code of conduct.”
The Pledge was signed by senior representatives of the African Christian Democratic Party, African National Congress, Congress of the People, Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters and Vryheidsfront Plus; and independent candidates. The independent candidate signatories included D Kham, J Xaba, J Zicina, D Molefe, B Mahlabe, S Moos, I Ramasimong and T Chembe. They all committed themselves to:
1. Lead in a manner that will reinforce a culture of tolerance towards all contesting parties
2. Effectively propagate a message of maximum tolerance
3. Publicly promote the eradication of no-go areas for all contesting parties
4. Desist from using speech or from participating in actions which will have the effect of provoking either parties’ supporters or members of the general public to commit acts of intolerance or take other inflammatory actions.
5. Work together to achieve the objects and goals of the Code of Conduct
The Electoral Code of Conduct is part of the Municipal Electoral Act (27 of 2000) and supported by a comprehensive list of prohibited conduct including:
• Using language which provokes violence
• Intimidation of candidates or voters
• Publishing false information about other candidates or parties
• Plagiarising any other party’s symbols, name or acronyms
• Offering any inducement or reward to a person to vote for a party
• Destroying, removing or defacing posters of other parties
Any allegations of prohibited conduct by a party or its supporters should be reported to the SA Police Services.
The Code of Conduct is enforceable for all parties contesting the by-elections from the date of proclamation (22 January 2016) until the results are officially announced.
Following proclamation of the by-elections, the voters’ roll will be certified by the Chief Electoral Officer on 28 January 2016. Candidate nominations will close at 17h00 on 1 February 2016.
Applications for special votes will be allowed between 8 February and 12 February 2016 with special votes being case on 23 February, a day before the by-elections on 24 February 2016.
The re-holding of the by-elections in Tlokwe follows the ruling by the Constitutional Court late last year setting aside the results of the by-elections held in December 2013 and ordering that new elections be held within 90 days.
The Electoral Commission has accepted the judgment and looked at the findings of the Court in an effort to address challenges and improve on processes where necessary. In this respect, the Commission will be implementing a 10-point action plan for the Tlokwe by-elections. The 10-point plan comprised of the following initiatives:
1. Registered voters that were found to have incorrectly registered in the relevant wards of Tlokwe ahead of the 2013 by-elections are in the process of being re-registered in their Voting Districts of ordinary residence based on the address provided to the IEC on the Voter Registration Application form popularly known as REC 1 forms. This task will be completed before providing potential contestants with an electronic copy of the inspection voters’ roll ahead of proclamation of the date of the by-elections.
2. An electronic copy of the inspection voters’ roll with addresses will be provided to potential contestants as soon as the above process is completed. In the meantime we have provided a list of voters with their addresses to participants already last month – along with details of the voters who are being re-registered.
3. Target communication and registration (TCR) was undertaken in the seven wards in the week of 5-8 January 2016 to engage with voters and improve the quality of addresses and to register new voters.
4. We have developed improved maps of the voting districts– which include additional points of interest to help to more accurately locate voters in the correct voting districts.
5. We conducted additional training of registration officials to emphasize the importance of obtaining adequate address information from applicants in order to correctly place applicants in correct VDs and wards. This training included map reading and we tried as far as possible to recruit officials from the local communities who have a sound local geographical knowledge of the wards in question – and who speak the relevant local language.
6. Voter registration took place over this past weekend in the 20 affected voting districts which were assisted with announcements all weekend on regional and community radio stations.
7. For voters who do not have a formal address, we have developed an affirmation which applicants can sign to affirm that they are resident of the voting district. This affirmation includes a clear warning to voters that it is an offence for voters to knowingly register in a voting district where they do not live.
8. All REC 1 forms from the TCR and registration weekend have been transported to national office of the Electoral Commission where the forms will be scanned so as to retrieve the addresses and place the addresses on the certified voters’ roll for the by-elections. A two week period has been allocated for this exercise.
9. Recorded addresses will then be checked against the national address database (NAD), where available, to verify whether registration applicants registered in the correct VDs based on the provided REC 1 addresses.
10. Following the proclamation of the date of the by-elections on 22 January 2016, the voters’ roll will be certified by the CEO of the Electoral Commission. On the date that candidates are certified to contest the by-elections (8 February 2016), such candidates will be supplied with a certified copy of the voters’ roll with addresses.
The Vice Chairperson, Commissioner Tselane, said the Commission is confident that these steps will address the irregularities which undermined the previous by-elections in Tlokwe and help to improve the entire voter registration process ahead of the municipal elections later in 2016
ISSUED BY THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION
Ensuring free and fair elections
Potchefstroom
12 January 2016
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