POLICE maintained a high visibility in Malamulele over the weekend amid fears of possible violence during the electoral registration process.
The weekend did not yield any violent protests, but residents seemed to be boycotting the registration process.
This comes after government did not give Malamulele the municipality status that residents were campaigning for over the past 13 years.
A police official, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal said he did not see even one resident registering for the 2014 elections over the two-day period.
At the same time, Independent Electoral Commision (IEC) members claimed that residents were intimidated at some voting stations when they wanted to register to vote. “There is a difference between intimidation and a boycott,” said Nkaro Mateta, the spokesperson for the IEC in Limpopo. According to Mateta, the IEC registered just over 50 voters in Malamulele. Brig Hangwani Mulaudzi, the Limpopo police spokesperson said the police did not experience any violence in the area over the voter registration weekend.
“There was no violence, everything was very quiet throughout the weekend,” he said.
The task team that represents Malamulele residents said the people’s resistance might have an influence on next year’s elections, depending on government’s response to their requests for their own municipality.
“The people took a decision not to register and depending on how government responds to their request, they can also decide whether to vote or not in next year’s elections,” said Dr Jan Nkuna, the secretary of the task team.
“As for intimidation, I cannot confirm that it happened as we were not going around checking the registration stations.”
