Durban - KwaZulu-Natal voters should brace themselves for a bigger ballot paper as the number of political parties and independent candidates participating in next year’s elections is expected to increase.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in KZN said this eventuality means that a massive voter education drive needs to be undertaken in order to avoid confusion during voting.
Electoral operations manager at the IEC Scelo Duma gave a snapshot of the elections when addressing members of the provincial legislature last week.
He conceded that the 2024 elections would be very challenging for a number of reasons.
“The ballot paper is going to be an A3 size or beyond, which will present a host of challenges.”
He said one of the challenges with a larger ballot paper would be the need for bigger ballot boxes.
Duma indicated that as part of the consultation process to be undertaken, the IEC would hold meetings with the KZN cabinet, faith-based organisations, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) and other civic structures with the aim of updating the sectors on the changes set to be experienced during next year’s elections.
“One of the reasons that we will be meeting with Salga is because most of the infrastructure that has been, and will be used during the elections belongs to municipalities which are a sphere of local government and it is important for them to appreciate the role they play.
“So in part we will be appealing to them to ensure that it is in good condition for use during the election,” said Duma, adding that libraries, schools and community halls would continue to be used and needed to be in a good state.
The operations manager conceded that the elections would present a logistical challenge, especially with the blackouts that were experienced throughout the country, but was optimistic that the IEC would continue with its trend of delivering credible elections.
Duma expressed confidence that if all deadlines were met, including the registration of all parties and individual candidates the IEC would be able to run a chaos-free poll.
The IEC team is expected to return to the KZN Legislature in order to conclude the presentation on a date yet to be determined.