IFP joins calls for postponement of elections

The upcoming local government elections are expected to be held in November this year. 

 But the opposition party believes the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the country not being ready to host elections. 

"South Africa is in dire straits having to confront Covid-19 pandemic and the rolling lockdown which has prevailed on the country,” says spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa.

 “It has been a disturbance to campaigning, voter registration, and the state of readiness generally on the IEC, political parties and the electorate. We are not on the level any of us can be satisfied that campaigning and elections will be successful, free and fair and credible.

 "We are therefore calling for the elections to be postponed to May 2022 as we believe that at that point South Africa would have moved in the direction which can allay collective anxiety about these elections." 

 Hlengwa says the proposed voter registration will be a super-spreader event. 

 "At the time of Covid-19, you are most certainly not going to get a maximum number of people to come out and register to vote and the environment doesn't allow that.

 "We may actually end up converting voter registration weekend to a compounded one weekend to being a super-spreader event if the drive is to push everybody in one weekend. Therefore it might not solve the problem but exacerbate it even further." 

 The party will submit its demands to the IEC and Parliament. 

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