Majority of South Africans still trust IEC - HSRC

The aim of the survey is to establish voters’ opinions and perceptions on the day of the elections 

Since 2009, the council has examined waiting times and trust in the IEC, among other things, in local government and national elections. 

Comparing the survey results of the previous general election in 2019, the council recorded a drop in complete confidence that election results will be accurately counted from 60% to 45%. 

But HSRC research director Dr Benjamin Roberts said not all is lost: “It hasn’t swung to the negative end of the scale. It’s a thinning out of completely confident and moving mainly into ‘very’ or ‘quite confident’ categories. But, it does represent a substantive change relative to the last elections.” 

Despite the glitches on voting day, the majority of voters believed the process was free and fair. 

In these elections, 92% of those surveyed said that election procedures were unequivocally free. Similarly, 92% believed they were fair.

“One key response was that the elections were free and fair due to a prevailing sense that there was freedom to make political choices without any form of force, pressure or intimidation. The open-ended date tends to demonstrate that the freedom to make political choices remains fundamental to the minds of the voting public.”

The HSRC found that the queuing times have increased relative to more recent elections.

The survey found that 60% of voters cast their ballot within 15 minutes, compared to 76% in the previous general election. 

The number of people who waited over an hour increased from 4% in 2019 to 11% this year.

However, the council found that South Africans are split on where the country is ready to move to electronic voting, with 29% strongly in support. 

Roberts said there was some polarisation around this topic: “What we found is that 29% strongly support moving to electronic voting, a further 22% support it. So, roundabout 55% of the public are in favour of moving to electronic voting, 10% were neutral, 21% opposed and a further 15% strongly opposed.”