As the ANC prepares to hold its elective conference in Mangaung next week, deep-seated feelings of mistrust among warring factions has resulted in the ruling party opting to count the votes manually instead of electronically.
It all started at the 2007 ANC elective conference in Polokwane, when fearing vote rigging, the then ANC’s deputy president Jacob Zuma’s backers called for a manual count. They argued that it was highly possible to manipulate technology and manual counting was seen as the answer to eliminate any suspicion of fiddling with counting.
Five years on and the party has decided to stick to this method of counting, despite all the technological advancements.
ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu says, “We have discouraged the issue of electronic counting. We would like proper counting, manual counting of all the votes that would have been cast for each and every individual. That minimizes any contestation around outcomes.”
Some say there’s irony in this, as South Africa is touted as a technology leader on the continent. Yet other countries have made better advancements. Vote-counting in the recent Ghana elections was done electronically.
It remains to be seen when the ruling party will opt for technology over tradition in its vote-counting processes.
– By Yolisa Njamela
