Some election observers in KwaZulu-Natal say while this year’s local government elections were free and fair, loyal party members who worked as IEC officials, created mistrust of the electoral process for some voters.
Concerns also include long queues at some voting stations and non-adherence to COVID-19 protocols. The African National Congress(ANC) secured about 47% of the vote nationally, but are contending with lost ground- resulting in several key hung municipalities.
Sanelisiwe Gumede led one of the KwaZulu-Natal based observer teams during the local government election. She had a team of over 40 observers who were stationed at over 80 voting stations. High on her list of notable concerns, she says, are that at some voting stations voters, electoral officials were aligned to political parties.
She says voters knew this and that led to doubt in the credibility of the voting process.
“Some of the IEC officials are loyal members of political organisations and they are known by the community and when members of the community are coming to vote who come from different political parties and they realise the person who is sitting behind the desk is the person who belongs to a certain political organisation, then they lose trust and confidence in the whole process if it is free and fair,” says Gumede.
COVID-19 protocol
Adherence to COVID-19 protocol was also red-flagged. Gumede says some voting stations were not ideal with limited space. She also noted a lack of sanitisers and mask-wearing in some areas.
“Some of the voting stations that were used were too small, especially in the black sections, they were using venues with only one door. There was a lot of congestion, not enough space for observes and party agents and IEC staff. In some voting stations, even the sanitisers were not even there and in other voting stations they were even allowing people without wearing masks,” says Gumede.
Voters were turned away
In several isolated incidents across the province, voters were turned away at the voting station after being told that their names did not appear on the voters roll. On Thursday night, residents from the Dalton Hostel in Durban took to the streets to protest a similar situation. It is alleged that more than 4 000 people did not appear on the voters roll at the eThekwini College even though they registered. Angry residents torched a vehicle and closed off roads with burning rubble.
The IEC in the province is yet to comment on why these Dalton Hostel residents did not appear on the voters roll.
All votes were at the station were disqualified. Speaking to these sentiments, Gumede says it is possible that the results in the affected areas would have been different, had those voters been able to cast their votes.
“There are quite a number of people who were turned away without voting. One of those who tried to update their records on the system and the system could not update them only to find that they did not appear on the voters roll. Also, the shortage of the MEC 7 FORMS was a challenge in one of the voting stations I visited. They had to turn back those people. Honesty, you are right if you say they can lose not knowing if among the people who were turned back, the vote that they needed to achieve their goal might have been there,” says Gumede.
Gumede believes it is high time that the IEC consider using an electronic voting system rather than the traditional voting methods, reducing queues and possibly increasing voter turnout too.
LGE 2021 | Role of election observers in ensuring free and fair elections:
