Despite challenges, IEC ‘ready to deliver free, fair elections’
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has assured South Africans the upcoming local government elections will not be rigged.
This comes days before the country takes to the voting centres for the hotly contested November 1 polls.
Voters will elect more than 10,000 councillors to take up seats at 257 municipal councils.
This includes 8 metropolitan councils, 44 district councils and 205 local councils.
The electoral body launched the national Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Pretoria on Tuesday.
IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini says the commission is ready to undertake the mammoth task ahead of it.
"The local government is now upon us, and it didn't come easy, it came with its own challenges, which were actually unprecedented.
"Despite all these challenges that the Covid-19 has thrown at us, the commission is ready to deliver a free and fair election."
Mashinini adds the commission has put measures in place to safeguard the integrity of the elections, despite some concerns of a rigged process.
"For us, this transparency is very crucial because it is the anchor of the accountability of the electoral commission.
"The transparency is the main reason the IEC is conducting its business in the open ad public platform that we see and that voters will be counted and seen in our gigantic screens.
The IEC purchased 40,000 new voter management devices to replace the zip-zip machines which have been used over the past 20 years for voter verification.
The new devices are connected online and integrate the IEC's management system, helping to prevent double voting.
"The measures are in place, and they are known by all of us and the contestants. Some of these measures include the capturing and verification of results at each voting station.
"By the time they appear here, they are already known on the ground so there is no way a commissioner or anybody can change the result.
"This open and transparent process is not only about the integrity of these elections and the results, it's about something bigger than is bequeathing to the future generations an architecture of that will not allow for elections to be rigged in our country," Mashinini added.
The IEC is expected to announce the final results on November 4.
ALSO READ:
