Latest / Drive with John Perlman / Electoral Commission to give similarly affected political parties the same relief following Constitutional Court ruling

Transcript

Electoral Commission to give similarly affected political parties the same relief following Constitutional Court ruling · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're with John Perlman on 702. 702 Drive, it's 17
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: minutes past five. Let's then look at the implications of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the Concord decision in regard to the African National Congress
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: that was announced on Thursday. But since then, the Independent
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Electoral Commission has recognized, in their words, the 32... Other
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: similar situated parties are also involved in this thing and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: that they must also be given the opportunity to have
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: those candidates because they too had not fully completed the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: submission process and those 32 parties should now be given
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to have those candidates included as well. Let's
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: find out exactly how this is going to work in practice.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Janet Love is vice chairperson at the Independence Electoral Commission.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the IEC, and joins us now on 702 Drive. Ms. Love, welcome,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and thanks very much for giving us your time. Is
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: this process now automatic? In other words, whatever those 32
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: parties uploaded in the way that the ANC did, that
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: those candidates will automatically be added to the ballots in
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the areas where they were meant to be put forward,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: or do those parties have to indicate, yes, we wish
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: to take advantage of this opportunity?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: They do have to indicate because, as you know, from
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: the point of view of the manual and guidance that
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: was given by the commission to ensure that parties had
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the option to either confirm their submission or not by
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: that upload, the pressing of that button, none of the
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: parties have. Now, the African National Congress went to court
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: and obviously through that confirmed that that's indeed what they
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: wanted to do. But the other parties who were not
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: joined in that case need to be given that opportunity
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: to say one way or the other.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: So how's that going to work? I mean, presumably you've
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: notified them using the contact details they would have shared
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: with you as they indicated their interest in taking part
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: in the election. Is there a deadline? Because there are
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: printing presses waiting.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: A very, very tight deadline. There is, you know, the
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: various parties are in the process of being contacted and
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: giving very tight time frames for them to give their feedback.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: And some of the parties have already given some initial
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: feedback and others will do so in the course of
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: the next 24 hours, I have no doubt.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: So let's just look at the implications then for printing.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: We understand 33 million ballots have to be produced. Is
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: that the total required to run the election?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: No, no. The total to run the election is nearly
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: 76 million.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: So what we have here is the number of ballots
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: that are impacted by by the decision to implement the
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: court decision and to extend it. Of those ballots that
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: are involved in terms of if all of the 32
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: parties take up the, you know, confirm their decision that
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: they do want to go ahead, of those 33 million ballots, 27...
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: have already been printed and so there will need to
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: be changes made to those ballots in order for those
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: ballots to be able to be finalized and distributed to
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: the next three voting stations.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: So I understand that given that the ANC was the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: party in court and there were six municipalities affected, some
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: in the Eastern Cape, Port St. John's for example, and
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Mangung in the Free State, those ballots had been held
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: back pending the decision of the Concord. Have I understood
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: that correctly?
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Correct. That's right. Okay.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: So it's a significant additional cost. It's a stress on logistics.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: And quite a few people are asking, the ballots that
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: would have been used in constituency A or metro B
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: or whatever it might be, that are now invalid because
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: there's the possibility of the introduction of additional names. What
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: will be done with the ballots that were going to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: be used? Do they get shredded, burnt, destroyed, stored?
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: The ballots will be processed in the same way as
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: we would process them at the point of following an
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: election after the decision is taken to destroy them. So
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: they will be properly dealt with from the distraction point
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: of view, but obviously there needs also to be the
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: verification for the purposes of ensuring that we comply with
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: all of the Auditor General's requirements in that regard.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: In terms of learnings from this, I mean, you know,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the first statement from the IEC, Ms. Love, after the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Concord decision was, well, we will study the judgment and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: What do you make of the judgment? And obviously, you're
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: not going to comment and say, well, it's a good
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: or a bad thing. But does this give you pause
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: in regard to the way in which processes and regulations
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: have been set down, particularly with a view to upcoming elections?
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Are there things you're going to have to change? And
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: do you know what those things are?
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Well, at this point, we don't have actually any judgment.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: All we have is an order. and a judgment is
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: still pending. So the kinds of understandings or lessons or
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: things to reflect on going forward presumably will come from
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the judgment when we receive it. But at this stage,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: we're not in a position to comment on that. We
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: obviously are eager to see the judgment and will consider
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: it as soon as we do.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: And just finally, our elections always take place under significant
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: financial constraints. That's something that the IEC itself highlights before
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: elections and sometimes in the build-up. Do you have any
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: idea what this reprinting is going to cost?
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: We don't at this stage. That's something that's at the
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: moment in part of the process of the follow-up and
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: the calculations and so on. And that will be Once
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: that information is finalized and, you know, it has been
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: verified and confirmed and all the necessary, we will be
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: reporting on it in, you know, it's not a private figure.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: It will be disclosed.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Janet Love, Vice Chairperson of the
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Independent Electoral Committee.