Elections and COVID-19

"When we postponed the registration weekend, we took a very difficult decision in the interests of saving the lives of voters, election staff, party representatives and all citizens while still preserving the constitutional requirement to hold elections."

ELECTIONS AND COVID

The toughest challenge for the IEC since 1994

The Electoral Commission (IEC) has had to contend with many challenges due to the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic currently wreaking havoc across the country. In this interview Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Sy Mamabolo, talks about the postponement of the 2021 Municipal Elections Voter Registration Weekend, and challenges facing the Commission’s preparations in delivering free, fair and credible elections.

Q: The 2021 Municipal Elections have been hostage to fate from the very start. How has the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions impacted planning for the elections since 2020, and does it continue to do so now?

SM: Without doubt, Covid-19 has impacted on the preparation for the 2021 elections. Firstly, the fact that we have had to work from home last year meant that our rate of preparation was reduced, in other words, the speed at which the preparations were on-going had to be reduced. Secondly, the pandemic closed down the process of what is the limitation process undertaken by the Municipal Demarcation Board and so we ended up having to change the dates on which we were supposed to receive the final wards. The plan was to receive the wards in July of last year but that did not happen. It became impossible because of the disruptions induced by Covid-19. We then ended up receiving the final wards in two instalments, in September and December last year. This meant that until we received the wards, we were not able to start our own internal voting district delimitations. Also, the current wave, or the third wave, has had a huge impact on the timing for the registration weekend. We have resolved to postpone the registration weekend to the 31st July to the 1st August, pending the outcome of the Mosoneke Inquiry.

Q: How challenging has the year been to date from an operational perspective, given the usual challenges of budget cuts and union demands, in addition to the unusual challenges of COVID safety measure requirements and increased staff absenteeism as a result of Covid-19 infections?

SM: We have a growing number of infections affecting staff, as well as staff who have been exposed to persons who are infected. Close to 70 staff members are either in quarantine or in isolation as we speak. The reality is also that some of our landlords are reluctant to offer us the use of their facilities as voting stations, for fear of the transmission of the virus. But these are matters that we are dealing with, we will transcend these difficulties and ensure that the registration weekend is as successful as it ought to be.

Like all state institutions we have had to contend with significant reduction to baseline allocations. Last year we had to endure a cut of R165 million, in this current financial year R205 million had to be cut, the net effect is that we had to cancel the second registration weekend. Ordinarily, ahead of elections such as this, we would have two registration weekends but, on this occasion, we will have one due to the constraints on the fiscus.

The challenge we have is to balance two elements of the budget. Firstly, the cost of compensation, in other words, the number of staff we have, and on the other hand, an imperative not to significantly reduce our service offering to the South African population. So a delicate and judicious balance must be struck between those two imperatives.

We obviously are curtailing activities that will not have a bearing on the total quality of the service offering to the population. But it means it may be difficult to sustain continuous increases in the rates that we pay to electoral staff and the duration in which we employ our fixed-term contractual staff. The rates that we pay, as well as the length of time which we contract with fixed-term staff will be affected by these cuts.

Q: To what extent have the innovations the Electoral Commission has launched to date – the e-recruitment, e-learning, voter management device, and online registration - been driven by the pandemic? Or did they pre-date COVID?

SM: To answer your question, all these innovations were long in the offing, but Covid-19 gave greater impetus for them to be completed quicker than was originally planned. With e-recruitment and e-training we are trying to minimise physical contact as much as possible, but when you deal with an election operation such as we do, it is almost impossible to avoid physical contact totally. So, whilst part of the recruitment and training processes are online, there is a minimum amount of time we need for physical contact. People have to have a feel of the voter management device because you can’t place a person in a voting station and have them operate a voter management device when they have in fact not seen it before.

Q: How does the Electoral Commission balance the need for innovation and serving poor, rural and unconnected communities with traditional services and communications tools? Or are innovations intended to serve all voters equally?

SM: We are quite alive to disparities that remain prevalent in South Africa. Our society remains a society of uneven development characterised by uneven access to the digital economy. To that extent, we accept that all South Africans will not have access to online registration, which is why it is still important to maintain traditional forms of registration, such as registration weekend, to complement the new innovations. The new innovations are not a replacement of existing modalities of registration, they are just additional to existing methods that serve the needs of our diverse economy.

Q: How will the imminent postponement of the July registration weekend for the 2021 Municipal Elections affect the Electoral Commission's voter registration drive?

SM: When we postponed the registration weekend, we took a very difficult decision in the interests of saving lives of voters, election staff, party representatives and all citizens while still preserving the constitutional requirement to hold elections. The postponement affects many aspects of planning because we have signed contracts with landlords for the 17th and 18th July, now we must very quickly make contractual changes with them to ensure that we account for the new registration dates. Also, we are holding significant material in warehouses, and as long as you hold significant material in your warehouses, you have an omnipresent risk of theft. We need to be sensitive to the idea of having as short a period as possible when we are warehousing. We have that elongated risk if you want to call it that. Also, we now need to put a stop on our communication campaign which had started, and revise our communication message to reflect the new registration weekend. We are busy with all those types of things, and we hope to have a quick turnaround to ensure that the message gets to all sections of society.

Q: How many voters are currently not registered, and do you intend to make use of the time to increase voter participation, or is it a question of an already stretched budget becoming even more overstretched?

SM: It is estimated that about 8 or so million people are unregistered, but there’s a new hope that when we restart the registration campaign message, we will get to as many of those people as possible. A very important element of our communication strategy this time around in terms of the platform mix was the use of community radio stations which have a greater penetration in your more rural type of communities in the country. Another good thing is that with social media campaigning the turnaround is quicker, you are able to change the message quickly, unlike with your traditional media like radio or tv where the turnaround is slower.

Q: How will the postponement of the registration weekend impact the election timetable and the election date?

SM: At the moment, the impact of the change of the registration weekend is that we have reduced the election timetable from 86 days to 82 days. The postponement of the registration weekend currently has no bearing on the planned election date that was announced by the President of the 27th of October, suffice to say that the Commission is awaiting the report of the Moseneke Inquiry as to whether a free and fair election in the prevailing COVID-19 climate is possible or not on that date.

Q: How can your partners and stakeholders assist you in the coming months to deliver free, fair and credible 2021 Municipal Elections?

SM: The most important requirement from our partners is, let’s get the message out, let’s ensure that every citizen of the republic gets to hear the message about the new registration weekend, and let’s work with all political parties to ensure that the message from all political contestants can reach all South Africans, from the cities to the deepest rural areas in the country.