Durban - The busing of people to register to vote in areas where they did not live remained a problem, KwaZulu-Natal provincial electoral officer Mawethu Mosery said on Wednesday.
“It happens before us without us being able to deal with it,” Mosery told a briefing of the South African National Editors’ Forum in Durban.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has in the past been taken to the Electoral Court over rigging of voter registration in Jozini, KwaMashu and Vryheid, leading to re-runs of by-elections.
Mosery said there was no legislative requirement asking voters to provide proof of address when they registered.
However, he said, political parties should ensure there was fair play.
“We rely on political parties monitoring themselves,” Mosery said, adding there was an objection process to be followed before the voters roll was certified.
“The problem is that parties raise objections when the voters roll is (already) certified.”
He called on parties to get a copy of the roll and start monitoring it.
Mosery also called on people to register if they wanted to vote in the local government elections next year.
“They have to do so by March next year,” Mosery said.
The term of office for the serving councillors ends on May 17, 2016, and the next elections were expected 90 days thereafter at the voting stations where people had registered.
The election date was still to be proclaimed by Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan, in consultation with the IEC.
Once the election date was proclaimed, the voters’ roll would close. The number of voters has declined from 5.1 million to 5.067m due to attrition, among other things, in KZN.
Mosery said the IEC planned to hold two voter registration weekends, including separate, targeted registration for areas with voting stations moved from one municipality to another due to demarcation.
“We plan to have registration on the first weekend of February or the last weekend of January,” he said, adding that another was planned for the first weekend of March, if the poll was to be on May 18.
Mosery said the redrawing of municipal boundaries led to the reduction in councils from 61 to 54.
The province would have 870 wards, up from 828. The number of voting stations was expected to increase from 4 200 to 4 300.
Mosery added that the recruitment of election personnel was almost 85% complete, with the list of presiding officers and their deputies submitted to the party liaison committee.
The IEC would soon start with training of electoral staff, continuing until November.
Mosery said political parties represented in the legislature and parliament were updated about election preparations.
Mosery said voter turnout in the province remained a concern and Durban was the worst polling municipality, with many voting stations recording a 10% voter turnout.
Daily News