Tshwane elections: IEC set to probe registration glitches and ‘misrepresented party logos’ after complaints

With the local elections only 29 days away, some parties were still not happy about the electoral processes.

This was revealed after 45 political parties and 46 independent candidates gathered to sign the code of conduct of the Electoral Commission on Saturday.

During the signing at Tshwane House, some parties raised concerns over misrepresented party logos and registration glitches that saw several candidates not being registered.

The majority of candidates contesting in the upcoming local government elections were, however, happy with the commission’s ballot papers.

Spectrum National Party (SNP) spokesperson Charles Venter said several candidates they had registered did not reflect on the official candidate list.

“We had registered as a party to participate in all 107 wards in Pretoria and yesterday we found out that we will not be participating in 25 wards.

“We registered 38 councillors and only nine candidates are reflected.”

Marquard Pienaar of the Federal Party SA said his party logo was misrepresented on the official ballot paper and feared that party supporters might not identify the logo.

“I could not even recognize myself on the ballot paper because the picture is too dark. How will people vote for me without recognising me?” asked an independent candidate, Matome Samson Phosa.

IEC Tshwane regional supervisor Rosina Mkhondo said they will investigate the complaints before the finalisation of the official ballot papers.

Mkhondo said the SNP registration was done online and the commission would need time to investigate and find out what happened to the registration process.

She said the lack of registration of some of the candidates could be attributed to several issues, one of which could be that the candidates submitted were not registered voters in the region.

Also read: Tshwane elections: slight drop in registered voters, over 1,5 million set to head to the polls

(In local municipal elections, candidates or voters have to be registered in a municipality they reside in.)

Mkhondo said other reasons for the lack of registration of candidates included financial constraints of parties for registered candidates.

On the party symbol complaint, she said the commission did not change the Federal Party SA’s logo, but it had to make all the logos smaller to fit onto the ballot and this affected small details of the symbols.

“The symbols cannot be enlarged to a point where all the dimensions of the picture are visible.”

Regarding on complaints on pictures, Mkhondo said the issue could be created by the candidates not submitting quality pictures as requested.

She said the draft ballot paper was not the same quality as the official paper and that this could also be cleared.

While the commission allowed for parties to raise complaints, they emphasised the importance of signing the code of conduct, which was to raise awareness for parties to speak out against violence and not to incite violence.

On August 26, Mobopane ward councillor and counsellor candidate Tshepo Motaung was shot several times while travelling with family members.

Police Minister Bheki Cele reported that he was at least shot 20 times with an R5 rifle. Mkhondo said the commission in the region was well ready to facilitate the election processes and parties with complaints would be attended to and addressed.

While there were parties not present at the signing of the code of conduct, Gauteng IEC head of outreach and communication Moses Pitso said the rules applied to all parties.

He urged parents to caution children against defacing or removing political posters as this was a violation of the law.

Some of the rules of the Electoral Code of Conduct Parties and candidates must:

• Speak out against political violence and threats against other parties, the Electoral Commission, members of the public and the media;
• Work with the police in their investigation of election crime and violence;
• Accept the results of the election or challenge the result in court.

According to the commission, any person who breaches the code is guilty of a criminal offence and can be fined or sent to prison for up to 10 years.

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