Don’t let them hijack YOUR democratic right

This weekend, November 9 & 10, has been designated a voter registration weekend by the IEC. This is to prepare voters’ rolls for next year’s General Election.
While this is going on, Ward 22 of AbaQulusi/Vryheid Municipality has not had a councillor since the beginning of the year. The reason? Well, when the by-election was called for April, following the resignation of the councillor, it was postponed because there had been a massive case of electoral fraud.
Around 2,000 people who had newly registered for the by-election were subsequently removed from the Ward 22 roll by the IEC, not, we should add, at the IEC’s instigation, but because an independent candidate cried foul, was ignored by the IEC, and took his claim to the Electoral Court. Later, the by-election was postponed again with the Constitutal Court getting involved.
The as yet unproven fact is that political parties attempted to hijack the result of the Ward 22 by-election by organising the registration of irregular voters in Ward 22. How this was possible under the IEC’s on-the-ground officials’ noses is another question.
None of the individuals concerned, nor the political parties that persuaded them to register fraudulently, nor the possibly complicit IEC officials, have been charged with electoral fraud. Not one of them.
The point is that the will of the REAL residents in Ward 22 was deemed irrelevant by the political parties (and the IEC?) contesting the by-election. That is a fact. They didn’t care; political power (and all that goes with it) was all they wanted.
Let’s not let that happen again in any of our Wards.
Party agents – be alert. Cry “Foul” if you have to. It’s your democratic right… it is your democratic DUTY.