The Wits School of Governance aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the 2024 elections

The Wits School of Governance (WSG) hosted the first dialogue as part of a series to address key issues around the 2024 National Elections in South Africa on April 18.

The series themed, 30 Years of Democratic Governance and the 2024 South African Elections: Taking Stock and Looking Forward. This dialogue series focused on the implications of South Africa’s elections for the country, SADC, Africa, and Global South while also focusing on gender and the elections.
Dialogue One kickstarted the series and featured the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)’s chairperson, Mosotho Moepya who spoke on the IEC and the 2024 Landmark Elections.

It was facilitated by Wits’ Professor, Adebayo Olukoshi who led the conversation and asked the chairperson about the IEC’s readiness for the upcoming elections.

“We are not worried about the security measures, once the ballots have been cast, counting happens at the voting stations. The counting happens in the presence of party agents and observers, and the results at the voting station will be determined,” said Moepya.

He added that the IEC continues to allow IEC staff in the station to take a picture of the result slip signed by party agents and observers to check that the results reflect what the voting station reflects.

The results are also audited and if the result does not match what is at a particular station a party agent can object and the IEC steps in. The chairperson added that the notion of a result being rigged in the country did not exist.

“Having said so, the IEC of this country puts numerous measures in place that I don’t know many countries do. Before elections, we practise a dry run, where we include every one of our staff involved in the election to go to their voting stations generate AI data for every station, and send it to our systems as if voters are coming in and need necessary assistance.”

During the dry run, there are scenarios of people who are blind, illiterate, etc. From the dry run exercise, the IEC and staff know how to deal with such cases. Once the votes are in, the IEC monitors and evaluates every staff member’s performance.

“That gives us confidence when we go into an election,” he noted.

Integrity of elections
Moepya highlighted that integrity was important in the election process, “The results systems used on election day are developed by the IEC in the commission. Contrary to popular belief that we bring them from another country, we develop them based on the electoral legislation that we have.”

He added that the IEC tests the results extensively and works with IT auditors. These auditors are not limited to what they should test, they will test if the results were manipulated, or repurposed, and once they are satisfied they issue us with a clean audit.”

The chairperson noted that the IEC still took it upon themselves to go to political parties and show them the results system that will be used, and should the political parties wish to have independent auditors, they were open to testing the system.

“If the political parties are happy we seal the audit.”

Limitation on areas of voting
The chairperson highlighted that it was not the IEC’s limitation, it was a limitation that Parliament put in place after inviting public submissions after those considerations, it legislated in the manner it currently does.

“As the IEC we support that because an election must have integrity and rules that govern clearly and can be enforced and must not be used loosely.”

He explained that in the 2019 elections, the IEC addressed the country about section 24 A which said, “If you’re in your home province or province where you’re registered you can vote there which was intended to help people such as journalists who found themselves at a different station. That rule ended up being abused due to people turning up in other stations where they were not catered for.”

Parliament amended that and said it is aware there are still people who will not be able to vote at their stations, what they can do is notify their chief electoral officers who will make sure they are provided elsewhere and that provision will work in the 2024 election.

Three ballots system
Moepya explained, “In the past, we had two ballots (a provincial and a national). What was done behind the scenes was the national ballot was counted twice for the regional and national representation.”

Parliament has two houses: the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces and each one has 200 members. The first 200 are people that are on the ballot called the ‘national-national’ ballot this refers to people who voted in Gauteng in the past.

It was then counted twice for the people who would represent the province. The Constitution requires that an election must result in general be proportional and so the ‘national-to-national’ ballot is the ballot used to restore proportionality of elections.

Safety concerns around the election
According to the chairperson, the current political climate is one where an election can be held.

“In this election, we have the highest number of political parties contesting. We have 11 independent parties who will contest for the first time. Beyond these elections, an electoral reform panel will be held to analyse every concern regarding the electoral system.”

The communication between the IEC and its candidates
The chairperson said, “The mechanism we have in talking to parties is robust, there is nothing we can hide. We are not a decision-making body, parties come ready to raise concerns that they might have but because they are used to the process, they communicate with us.”

He added that SA remained unique, in other countries they say they need electoral reforms. SA conducts electoral reforms every two years and involves stakeholders to iron out issues and see how the next election can be bettered to ensure that the future of electoral processes is guaranteed for the next cycle.

Related articles: Dialogue One focused on: The IEC and the 2024 landmark elections