News

Election fever rising with first posters up

The battle of the ballot is on, with political rivals at loggerheads over election posters.

January 20, 2019

Gerhard Rheeder 1 minute read

FF+ Councillor Johan Duvenhage with the party’s election posters.

The battle over posters has been raging for years, with parties scrambling for the perfect spots.

On Friday, FF+ councillor Johan Duvenhage accused the DA of underhand tactics by putting up their posters without paying a deposit and having the posters stamped by the municipality.

Steve Tshwete’s Independent Electoral Commission offices, however, confirmed to the Middelburg Observer that it had already requested the municipality to allow political parties to put up posters, despite no election date having been pronounced by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The 2019 National and Provincial Government elections must take place by August.

The DA was first out of the starting blocks and put up election posters all over town.

DA activist Martin Demas and Councillor Morgan Bruiners were the first to put up election posters, securing the best spots on lamp posts, in the run-up to the 2019 national elections.

On Friday, Duvenhage of the FF+ accused the DA of cutting corners “because none of their posters are stamped and no deposit has been paid”.
The deposit is paid as surety of any political parties’ commitment to remove all posters after the elections. If the parties fail to remove the posters they forfeit the deposit.

The other big contenders, the ANC and EFF, are whining in their absence on the poles.

None of the political parties contesting the national elections have released their candidate lists for the National Assembly, National Council of Provinces and nine Provincial Legislatures.

The next voter registration weekend will take place on 26 and 27 January at voting stations around town.

Voters can also check whether they’re registered at the municipal IEC office.