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A South African voting
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has announced that it will not be implementing an electronic voting system for next year’s local government elections (LGE).
IEC officials met with members of the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature and the South African Local Government Association (Salga) to discuss preparations for the upcoming elections and to provide a report on the 2024 national and provincial elections.
IEC Provincial Electoral Officer Gugu Langa says discussions have however begun for the adoption of electronic voting systems.
“We had a conference that took place in March in Cape Town where a policy discussion document was presented. So, the commission is currently consulting on that. We have a period up until September to do the consultation. Today we were consulting the legislature together with Salga. Then on the 17th, which is next week, we are consulting civil society across the province and then on the 18 we will be consulting the Mpumalanga House of Traditional and Khoisan leaders.”
Voter declines nudge IEC to explore e-voting
Meanwhile, the issue of low voter turnout was one of the top issues discussed at the Mpumalanga Legislature, especially the youth.
The IEC’s Commissioner Janet Love says the commission has tasked itself to find ways of encouraging youth participation in elections.
“It is something that we all are working towards changing, including the political parties and including many other stakeholders. For us, the question of turnout is something we can only work about together. So, in that regard, I think there were some really important suggestions that came from the legislature, including issues of strengthening some of the communication, using various platforms, conventional media but also social media which we already do.”
IEC’s E-Voting conference
