South African National and Provincial Election Zesn
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SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL AND PROVINCIAL ELECTION ZESN OBSERVER MISSION 2014 Table of Contents Background ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2 The Election Campaign ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Legal framework ............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Electoral system .............................................................................................................................................................. 5 Registration of political parties ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Voter registration ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 Special voting .................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Key ZESN Observations and lessons of the South African Election ............................................................................ 12 1 | P a g e Introduction On the 7th of May, South Africa conducted its 5th elections after the end of the apartheid rule. The elections also coincide with South Africa’s celebration of 20 years since the inception of democracy. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) sent a 5 member technical election observation mission to observe South Africa’s national and provincial elections held on the 7th of May 2014. The elections were marked by pockets of violence that began as service delivery strikes which had political connotations in areas such as Burgersdale and some areas in KwaZulu Natal where there were more violent contestations. ZESN‘s observation focused on two key areas which are the voters roll and results management system. A number of lessons can be drawn from the South African elections. Background Elections in South Africa are held for the National Assembly, provincial legislatures and municipal councils. Elections follow a five-year cycle, with national and provincial elections held simultaneously and municipal elections held two years later. The electoral system is based on party-list proportional representation, which means that parties are represented in proportion to their electoral support. For municipal councils there is a mixed-member system in which wards elect individual councillors alongside those named from party lists. In elections of the National Assembly, every South African citizen who is 18 or older may vote, including (from the 2014 election) that resident outside South Africa. In elections of a provincial legislature or municipal council, only those residents within the province or municipality may vote. All elections are conducted by the Electoral Commission of South Africa, which is an independent body established by the Constitution. The governing Africa National Congress (ANC), supported by its Tripartite Alliance with the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), has held a majority of the seats in the National Assembly since 1994. They were re-elected with increasing majorities in 1999 and 2004 and with a slight fall in its majority from 69% to 65.9% in 2009. The ANC is currently led by Jacob Zuma, who in 2012 was re-elected to a second five-year term as President of the African National Congress, beating his only rival and deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, by a wide margin. Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as Deputy President of the ANC, succeeding Motlanthe who had declined a second term after losing to Jacob Zuma. South Africa went into this election as the country was beset by a number of socio-economic and political problems. The African South African has been agitating for the fruits of independence and the delusions that has come with independence 20 years later. South Africa went into the elections faced with the following problems: Increased levels of unemployment A faltering education system A health system that is over burdened and under performing Systemic and endemic corruption on the rise A litany of strike action across the country in many sectors such as mining, local government and citizens demonstration about service delivery. The country is clouded by the Marikana crisis; the place where the police shot 34 miners who were on strike. It is clouded by the Nkandla debacle where the president‘s rural residence has raised issues of abuse of state funds. 2 | P a g e President Zuma‘s candidature and his legitimacy was also cast in shadow by the vote of no confidence motion that was moved by the DA. The incumbent has been accused by opposition political parties of creating a crony state hence the high levels of corruption. In addition, they wanted President out of the office because of the Nkandla issue, the Marikana shooting as well as failure to provide text books to the Limpopo province for students. These efforts failed and Zuma was voted during the party’s national conference in Mangaung. While President Zuma managed to avert his removal from office, there remained string sentiments within the South African black middle class that President Zuma did not have what it takes to carry the country forward. Election management Elections in South Africa are managed by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). The IEC is responsible for all processes from registration of voters to the actual polling. The IEC is perceived as independent and impartial body as it reports to parliament instead of a respective ministry. The IEC is led by a 5 commissioners who are selected through a public interview process and these run 7 year terms. The commission is serviced by a secretariat which is headed by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) The levels of trust and confidence in the commission by the citizens are high and the commission has put in mechanisms that enhance trust and confidence through the creation of strong multi party mechanisms that are efficient and opening its operations to scrutiny. In addition, they have put in mechanisms such as the external auditor for results verification and rapid response mechanisms to complaints and objections that have ensured increased trust. The Election Campaign South Africa has a competitive party political system in which all citizens have the right to form political parties and parties have the right to contest elections freely. The African National Congress (ANC) is the dominant political actor in party politics. The party has won each national election since 1994 with a significant majority. Political parties participating in South African elections are required to submit themselves to a binding code of conduct as stipulated in Schedule 2 (Section 99) of the Electoral Act of 1998. Campaigning, the conduct of political party officials, adherence to dates for the submission of various election-related documentation and the promotion of political party materials are included in the code of conduct. According to Schedule 2 of the Act all political party candidates must: publicly state that everyone has the right to: freely express their political beliefs and opinions; challenge and debate the beliefs and opinions of others; publish and distribute their own elections materials; lawfully erect banners and billboards as well as any other forms of public advertisement as stipulated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in relation to elections; canvass support for a party or candidate; recruit members for a party; hold public meetings; and travel to and participate in public meetings. There are thirteen political parties in South Africa. The parties include The African National Congress, Democratic Alliance, Congress of people a new party that contested its first election in April 2009, Independent Democrats, United Democratic Movement Freedom Font Plus, Agang South Africa, the new Economic Freedom Fighters formed by Julius Malema an ex African National Congress and others. Each of the political parties has a manifesto; most of the manifestos state the issue of employment creation and corruption. 3 | P a g e The ruling ANC has been checked and balanced recently rather than usual. The public protector a body created by the constitution published a report in April that chastised president Zuma as partly responsible for the 246m rand ($246m) lavish on his private home Nkandla, in KwaZulu Natal. The Democratic Alliance sent around the message as art of their campaign which reads, ‘the main opposition party, sent a text message to 1,5m voters saying the president stole your money.” This issue of Zuma’s extravagancy has resulted in him being labeled a corrupt leader. This became a campaigning issue for the opposition parties including the Economic Freedom Fighters led by Malema. ANC had most of its supporters in Limpopo and KwaZulu Natal but political commentators predicted that it would lose some of its supporters, in KwaZulu Natal because of Malema who has most of his supporters from there and it is also challenged by EFF in Limpopo. The Democratic Alliance is the strongest opposition party led by Helen Zille who said at a certain