Every vote counts: voters are urged to go out and vote

There are concerns that the voter turnout for the local government elections may be negatively affected by various factors such as long-weekend; reports of inclement weather in some parts of the country; prevailing voter apathy and disgruntlement; as well as possible fear of COVID-19 infection.

Local government elections have had lower turnout in the past two elections. In 2016 the voter turnout was 58% while in 2011 it was 57.6%.

IEC’s Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo has expressed concerns.

“If you have travelled, please do come back to your voting station on time because you won’t be able to vote anywhere else but the voting district where you are registered unlike in national and provincial elections where you will have an opportunity to vote outside of your district. So all those who may have travelled have until tomorrow really to travel back to the place where they are registered,” said Mamabolo.

Voters are urged to travel back to their registered wards so that they may arrive in time before voting stations close at 21h00.

Electoral Commission (IEC) Chairperson Glen Mashinini said voters who will be on the voting queue at the voting station will be allowed to vote even after 21h00.

In addition, one vote can determine who wins the ward. In hotly contested wards, there is a possibility of seeing election results with razor-thin margins.

Coin flipping

Quite often the public is not aware that where there is a stalemate in the race for votes in the ward, an election can be decided by the equivalent of randomly tossing a coin, according to the Municipal Structures Act, No 117 of 1998, which makes provision for the flipping of a coin in case of a tie between ward candidates to decide the winning candidate.

Collette Schulz-Herzenberg of Stellenbosch University’s department of political science urged voters not to view their votes as wasted votes if they consider voting for a small party.

“In PR system, which is half the ballot at the local govt level, there is no such a thing as a wasted vote. All PR votes are counted, even those directed at small parties. Even small parties can play important roles in government as parents of a broader coalition or even as kingmakers. A healthy democracy needs high levels of participation.”

Dr TK Pooe of Wits School of Governance said voting in this election is important because the country’s municipalities are in a dire state and need a total shake-up.

Pooe further said voters should not see their vote as a waste. “My hope is that citizens and communities will now get involved in Ward Committees to ensure councilors and municipalities are made accountable to them.”

 

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News24.com | Elections 2021: This is why you can't take a picture of your marked ballot paper

The chairperson of the Electoral Commission of SA, Glen Mashinini, was speaking at the national results centre in Pretoria as the IEC wrapped up the final day of special voting.



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Election day is here: South Africans to cast their ballots in local polls

It’s been a busy past few weeks for South Africa’s political parties, as they have been criss-crossing the country, in a bid to woo voters ahead of the local government elections and now we’ll get to see just how effective that messaging has been! More than 26 million citizens have been registered to vote in the municipal polls on Monday, 1 November.

Voting stations open at 07:00 and will close at 21:00.

‘ALL SYSTEMS ARE GOOD FOR ELECTION DAY’ – IEC

IEC Chairperson Glen Mashinini has called on South Africans to come out in their numbers and cast their ballots for the local government elections.

“Therefore, our clarion call to all compatriots, South Africans, is that let’s go out and vindicate our democratic right to vote,” said Mashinini said. He held a media briefing at the national results operation centre on Sunday evening, 31 October 2021.

It comes as the IEC wrapped up its second day of casting special votes, a process which it says was successful.

“We are pleased that we have completed the special voting successfully and, as matters stand now, we are very confident that all systems are good for the election day tomorrow [Monday],” Mashinini said.

He has reminded voters who were unable to cast their special ballots can still do so on Monday at their registered voting stations.

“The two days of the special votes have also offered us insight which we believe will now enable us to refine our operations to positively impact the voter experience that we expect from South Africans who will be coming out in their large numbers to cast their vote. Therefore we urge the 26 million compatriots who are eligible to come out and cast their votes in their respective voting stations. The network of 23 148 voting stations will be open for voting at 07:00”

IEC Chairperson Glen Mashinini

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Municipal Elections: Police presence expected at ‘high risk’ voting stations

The Police Ministry says its confident in the SAPS’ ability to attend to any eventualities that may occur during voting in the local government elections on Monday,1 November 2021, particularly at identified hot-spot areas.

Police officers have been deployed to several areas in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal,  the Eastern and Western Cape and Gauteng have been flagged as ones of concern. This is partly due to the rise in politically-related violence that has been reported in these areas ahead of the municipal elections.

BHEKI CELE: HOT-SPOT AREAS TO BE MONITORED

Police Minister Bheki Cele says he is sure that the SAPS in the various provinces including KZN and Mpumalanga, have put measures in place to ensure the safety of voters, IEC officials, and the public in general.

“These provinces have received additional SAPS officers ahead of the elections and not only that, law enforcement agencies including the SANDF will be working hand in glove with police as force multipliers. The provinces have put together solid plans informed by intelligence driven analysis and this gives me confidence that those plans will result in citizens casting their votes freely, with little to no disruptions,” he said.

Cele visited KZN and Mpumalanga this weekend where he was taken through the SAPS local government elections deployment plan, which focuses on how police will deal with all eventualities, especially at identified hot-spot areas.

“In areas where IEC officials are not able to perform their duties due to safety fears and threats from communities, SAPS officers who have been trained by the Electoral Commission remain on standby to take over from these officers at voting stations. This is already the case in the Ugu district in KZN where election related violence broke out and resulted in the injury of a police officer from a gunshot to the leg in Mistake Farm. While police will be on hand to ensure voting goes ahead as planned, they will not be letting their gaurd down in policing other crimes.”

Police Minister Bheki Cele

The Police Ministry says the heightened deployment in identified areas during Election Day, will remain in place, until the election results are announced on  4 November.

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Joburg Mayor Mpho Moerane to cast his vote at Lombardy East

Joburg Mayor, Mpho Moerane, will be casting his vote in Lombardy East, Johannesburg. Today millions of South Africans are expected to go out in their numbers to cast their ballots for the local government elections.

The past two days had been dedicated to special votes and over half million people have cast their ballots nationwide.

More than 23 000 polling stations are expected to open their doors to voters at exactly 7 AM this morning. And they will be open until nine in the evening. One of those who will be casting their ballots is Joburg Mayor, Mpho Moerane.

“The Executive Mayor of Johannesburg Mpho Moerane has urged all residents of Johannesburg to exercise their constitutional and democratic right and to go out in numbers to cast their votes in the 2021 elections. The Executive Mayor also wishes to remind residents as they go out to vote to do so within the stipulated COVID-19 regulations and to wear their masks, maintain social distance and to wash and sanitise their hands as regularly as possible,” says Mayoral Spokesperson Mlimandlela Ndamase.

Johannesburg is highly contested where former Mayor of the City, Herman Mashaba is hoping to regain power with his newly formed political party, Action SA.

The past two days were dedicated to special votes. This includes the elderly and essential workers. IEC Chairperson Glen Mashinini says it has been smooth sailing.

“The last two days that we have had very successful special voting, we are pleased that we have completed the special voting successfully. And as matters stand now we are very confident that all systems are good for the election day.”

The IEC has urged all 26.2 million eligible voters to go out and cast their votes. Some of those who are going to vote tomorrow had this to say.

“The next party that is coming into power, should be one that looks after young people and gives them more opportunities,” says one of the residents.

Another voter says; “In terms of service delivery, I think it is something they should better in our communities. I think it is about time we all go out and vote, vote for change.”

SA gears up for election day:

The IEC says those who will get to the voting stations around the closing time of 9 o’clock will not be turned away.

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Tigrayan and Oromo forces say they have seized towns on Ethiopian highway

Two different groups fighting Ethiopia’s central government said they had seized control of towns on Sunday as the prime minister appealed for citizens to take up arms.

The spreading conflict threatens to further destabilise Africa’s second most populous nation, once considered a stable Western ally in a volatile region.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed urged citizens to join the fight against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party in control of the rebellious northern region of Tigray, after Tigrayan forces said they took another town on a highway linking the capital of the landlocked nation to the port of Djibouti.

“Our people should march with any weapon and resources they have to defend, repulse and bury the terrorist TPLF,” Abiy said in a Facebook post on Sunday night.

CLAIMS OF GAINS

TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda said Tigrayan forces have seized the town of Kombolcha and its airport in the Amhara region. He spoke to Reuters by phone from an unknown location.

On Sunday night, insurgents from Oromiya, Ethiopia’s most populous region, said they had also seized the town of Kemise, 53 km (33 miles) south of Kombolcha on the same highway to the capital Addis Ababa.

Odaa Tarbii, a spokesperson for the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), said the group had taken Kemise, 325 km (200 miles) from Addis Ababa, and were engaging government forces.

The OLA is an outlawed splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, a formerly banned opposition group that returned from exile after Abiy took office in 2018. The Oromo are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group; many of their political leaders have been imprisoned under Abiy’s government.

In August the OLA and the TPLF announced a military alliance, heaping pressure on the central government.

Central government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, Ethiopian military spokesperson Col. Getnet Adane and Amhara regional spokesperson Gizachew Muluneh did not immediately respond requests for comment on the TPLF and the OLA’s claims.

Reuters could not independently verify Getachew’s claim as phone lines in Kombolcha appeared to be down on Sunday. Reuters could not reach anyone in Kemise.

On Sunday, the Amhara regional government said in a statement “all government institutions must suspend their regular activities and should direct their budget and all their resources to the survival campaign officials on every level should mobilise and lead…to the front.”

They announced a curfew of 8 p.m. and urged citizens to provide private vehicles to support the campaign.

YEAR-LONG WAR

War broke nearly a year ago between federal troops and the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was appointed in 2018. The conflict has killed thousands of civilians and forced more than two million people to flee their homes.

Tigrayan forces were initially beaten back, but recaptured most of Tigray in July. They then pushed into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, displacing hundreds of thousands  more civilians.

Regional forces from Amhara have fought alongside the military in Tigray. The two regions of Amhara and Tigray have a long-running boundary dispute over farmland in Western Tigray, currently under the control of the Amhara administration.

In mid-October, the Tigrayan forces said the military had mounted an offensive to push them out of Amhara. The military has accused the Tigrayan forces of starting the recent round of fighting.

Tigrayan forces have said they will keep fighting until Amhara forces leave the heavily fortified area of Western Tigray, and until the government permits the free movement of aid into the rest of Tigray.

The United Nations has previously accused the government of a de facto blockade of Tigray, where the UN says around 400,000 people are living in famine conditions. The government denies blocking aid.

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Zaha suffers racist abuse online after Palace stun Man City

Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha has been subjected to racist abuse online and the 28-year-old shared screenshots of some of the comments after Saturday’s 2-0 Premier League win over Manchester City.

Zaha, who scored the opening goal of the game at the Etihad Stadium, was brought down by Aymeric Laporte which resulted in the City defender receiving a straight red card in first-half stoppage time.

The Ivory Coast international, who has previously been targeted online , posted images of the racist messages that he received on Instagram after the game and asked social media companies to take the problem seriously.

“This message isn’t for me to get a million messages saying ‘we stand with you’ and ‘it’s disgusting’ or about me getting sympathy,” Zaha wrote on Instagram. “I’m not here for all the nonsense that’s being done instead of fixing the actual problem. “I don’t mind abuse because nowadays it comes with doing the job I do even though it’s not an excuse but my colour will always be the real problem but it’s fine because I’ll always be BLACK AND PROUD. “Speak to me when you actually take this issue seriously.”

Facebook, which owns Instagram, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Several players have been subjected to racial abuse online in recent months, especially in the Premier League, and English soccer has been urging social media firms to do more to tackle the problem.

Instagram had previously announced new measures and Twitter vowed to continue its efforts after taking action on cases of abuse related to soccer in Britain. Earlier this year, Zaha said he would stop “taking a knee” before games as part of English football’s anti-racism campaign because he believed the meaning of the “degrading” gesture had been lost.

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