BY STAFF REPORTER
Retired deputy justice Dikgang Moseneke have recommended for the local government elections to be held in February next year.
Moseneke who was appointed by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said conducting the local government elections in October, will not be in a free and fair manner.
The 120 page report carefully records and examines the submissions of the commission stakeholder including political parties, civil society organizations, organisided media and a public survey.
According to the report an inquiry sought to find an objective and dependable standard that is suited to measure whether the pending elections are likely to be free an fair in the face of the threat of life and the limb and access to health care posed by infections hospitalisation and death spawned by the pandemic.
“When an election has been called the commission must prepare a timetable for the election. We conclude that if the elections were to proceed most of the acts required to be perfomed in accordance with th draft timtable will not be reasonably possible starting with th face to face registration of voters who do not have access to electronic registration, the provisonal and final cerification of the voters roll and the finalisation of the nomination process for registered parties and independebnt candidates. This is so because the subexisting lockdowns restrictions will stand in the way of parties and independent candidates of accomplishing acts prescribed by the timetable and electoral laws,” read the report.
Moseneke said after taking into consideration all submissions of stakeholders, applicable law, research on electoral practices during the covid-19 pandemic, and the related science, they concluded that it was not reasonably possible or likely that the local government elections scheduled for the month of October will be in a free and fair manner, as required by the peremptory of the Constitution and related legislation.
“And we go further to find that the scheduled elections are likely to be free and fair if they were to be held not later than the end of the month February 2022.”
The Democratic Alliance said it does not support recommendations to postpone the elections. “We have said from the start that it is possible to hold elections within Covid-19 protocols,” DA national spokesperson, Siviwe Gwarube.
“It is not essential to have mass gatherings and marches in order to hold free and fair elections. It is these events that give rise to the risk of covid transmission – not the holding of elections in themselves,” Gwarube said.
IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela said the commission will urgently study the report and its recommendations before making final decisions on the implications of the report for the Local Government Elections scheduled for 27 October 2021.
“With this in mind the commission expects to make a final announcement on the way forward within the next few days.The commission is extremely grateful to Justice Moseneke and his team who conducted this Inquiry under extremely tight timelines necessitated by the Constitutional requirement to hold Local Government Elections before 1 November 2021.
“Despite these pressures, in just 61 days Justice Moseneke and his team managed to conduct a thorough, comprehensive, transparent and highly inclusive investigation into whether free and fair elections can be conducted under the current COVID-19 conditions,” Bapela said.
Bapela said the commission hopes that this final report on the Inquiry will not only assist the commission in making a final determination regarding the upcoming Local Government Elections but will also contribute to the emergence of a national consensus of what conditions are necessary for free and fair elections and how they can ensure the safety of voters, candidates, election staff and all other participants.
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