00:00:07
Speaker 1: We are a week away from the local government elections where up to 29 million registered voters across the country who are eligible to vote will hopefully go and vote for a ward candidate as well as a political party they want represented in the case of the metros, the city councils. Michael Hendrickson, is a provincial electoral officer in the Western Cape for the IEC. Michael, how's it looking a week out? Good morning.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Hi, good morning. Yes, we're getting there in terms of all our systems ready to go, starting obviously with special voting on Monday.
00:00:44
Speaker 1: And what numbers, and obviously your purview is over the Western Cape here, what numbers of people are you expecting to participate in the special votes on Monday and Tuesday?
00:00:54
Speaker 2: Okay. Look, in terms of the Western Cape, we have just under 300,000 voters who have successfully applied to vote either at the voting station where they registered or persons who have qualified for a home visit.
00:01:10
Speaker 1: All right. And obviously, logistically, for the home visits, all of that is in order. People will be visited within, would it be between seven and five, I think, that will be the.
00:01:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's between 8 and 5 on Monday and Tuesday. In the Western Cape, we have 1,850 teams that have been ready. A team consists of at least two IEC officials that will have to visit each of these homes, escorted by African police services or local law enforcement. And then obviously also political party agents can also be there with us when we do these home visits.
00:01:48
Speaker 1: All right. And then on Wednesday... Polls open at 7 o'clock and they will close at 9. And as previously, whoever is on the line by 9 o'clock will be served however long it takes. But you won't be taking any more additional people post 9 o'clock on the line.
00:02:05
Speaker 2: That is correct. 7 till 9 o'clock, if you're in the queue, we will allow you to still vote. We will actually set a marker to determine who is the last person in the queue as at 9 o'clock. And that will be the last person we will allow through to vote. All right.
00:02:19
Speaker 1: It's a question, I suppose, for the Department of Home Affairs. Anyone who, since registering, has lost their smart card or green bar-coded ID book will obviously take up the opportunity of additional hours that the department is going to make available for people to apply for temporary certificates, which are going to be eligible for use, right, when it comes to elections?
00:02:41
Speaker 2: That is correct. Temporary identification certificate. The only proof that we do accept is your original green bar-coded ID ID book, the smart ID or the temporary identity certificate. Home Affairs will be open extended hours on Monday, Tuesday until 6 o'clock. And then on voting day, election day, they'll also then be open from 7 o'clock until 9 o'clock in the evening on Wednesday. So that anyone who hasn't picked up the ID, please go pick it up or get a temporary identity certificate. All right.
00:03:15
Speaker 1: Michael, the reason we did actually call you was to find out what happens in an incident where a candidate representing either the same political party or different political parties are listed on two different wards. I happen to know of somebody who is a candidate for the same party in Kemp's Bay in a ward there as well as a ward in Observatory. Obviously, if that person loses both, it doesn't matter. Loses one, wins the other, it doesn't matter. What happens in an incident where they win both?
00:03:46
Speaker 2: If they win, the law says that they will have to make a choice within two days which ward they want to represent. They cannot. There's only one place for your bump in council. There's not two places, so you'll have to make a choice. And then if the other ward will be decided by election, it will take place within 90 days of the election. All right.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: So if I choose Ward 5 over Ward 32... Ward 32 then will need to have a by-election undertaken within 90 days of the result being declared.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: That is correct. Unfortunately, we have a situation currently that the only residency requirement is that you have to be a registered voter in the municipality. There's no requirement that you must be a a voter registered in the ward that you are contesting. So you have this phenomenon in cases where, in fact, multiple, you know, I know of cases where a person is standing on 20 wards or whatever the case may be, the same person. And I think it's an opportunity for voters to then make their decision on what do they think about somebody who is exploiting this loophole in our legislations.
00:05:03
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if we have this data at hand, Michael, but of however many candidates are registered to contest the local government election in the Western Cape, what proportion, what percentage of them are these people who present themselves in 20 different wards?
00:05:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it's very difficult. In most cases, it is literally coming down to political parties who nominate a person to stand in multiple wards for whatever reason, whether they They don't have enough candidates or even alternatively strategically where they want to exploit the calculation of the formula for PR seats where we have to look at overall proportionality. But either way, that is currently a loophole in our legislation that allows you to stand in more than one ward. Yeah, we'll have to see what Parliament decides about that.
00:05:53
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Michael. Thank you very much. It's going to be a busy week for you and your teams. Michael Hendrick, sir, is the provincial electoral officer for the Independent Electoral Commission here in the Western Cape. We are seven days out for the local government elections. Special votes, as Michael indicated, happening on Monday and on Tuesday. Otherwise, the majority of us will go out, hopefully in our numbers, to go and vote for Michael. a political representation of our choosing in our city council.
Speaker 1: We are a week away from the local government elections where up to 29 million registered voters across the country who are eligible to vote will hopefully go and vote for a ward candidate as well as a political party they want represented in the case of the metros, the city councils. Michael Hendrickson, is a provincial electoral officer in the Western Cape for the IEC. Michael, how's it looking a week out? Good morning.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Hi, good morning. Yes, we're getting there in terms of all our systems ready to go, starting obviously with special voting on Monday.
00:00:44
Speaker 1: And what numbers, and obviously your purview is over the Western Cape here, what numbers of people are you expecting to participate in the special votes on Monday and Tuesday?
00:00:54
Speaker 2: Okay. Look, in terms of the Western Cape, we have just under 300,000 voters who have successfully applied to vote either at the voting station where they registered or persons who have qualified for a home visit.
00:01:10
Speaker 1: All right. And obviously, logistically, for the home visits, all of that is in order. People will be visited within, would it be between seven and five, I think, that will be the.
00:01:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's between 8 and 5 on Monday and Tuesday. In the Western Cape, we have 1,850 teams that have been ready. A team consists of at least two IEC officials that will have to visit each of these homes, escorted by African police services or local law enforcement. And then obviously also political party agents can also be there with us when we do these home visits.
00:01:48
Speaker 1: All right. And then on Wednesday... Polls open at 7 o'clock and they will close at 9. And as previously, whoever is on the line by 9 o'clock will be served however long it takes. But you won't be taking any more additional people post 9 o'clock on the line.
00:02:05
Speaker 2: That is correct. 7 till 9 o'clock, if you're in the queue, we will allow you to still vote. We will actually set a marker to determine who is the last person in the queue as at 9 o'clock. And that will be the last person we will allow through to vote. All right.
00:02:19
Speaker 1: It's a question, I suppose, for the Department of Home Affairs. Anyone who, since registering, has lost their smart card or green bar-coded ID book will obviously take up the opportunity of additional hours that the department is going to make available for people to apply for temporary certificates, which are going to be eligible for use, right, when it comes to elections?
00:02:41
Speaker 2: That is correct. Temporary identification certificate. The only proof that we do accept is your original green bar-coded ID ID book, the smart ID or the temporary identity certificate. Home Affairs will be open extended hours on Monday, Tuesday until 6 o'clock. And then on voting day, election day, they'll also then be open from 7 o'clock until 9 o'clock in the evening on Wednesday. So that anyone who hasn't picked up the ID, please go pick it up or get a temporary identity certificate. All right.
00:03:15
Speaker 1: Michael, the reason we did actually call you was to find out what happens in an incident where a candidate representing either the same political party or different political parties are listed on two different wards. I happen to know of somebody who is a candidate for the same party in Kemp's Bay in a ward there as well as a ward in Observatory. Obviously, if that person loses both, it doesn't matter. Loses one, wins the other, it doesn't matter. What happens in an incident where they win both?
00:03:46
Speaker 2: If they win, the law says that they will have to make a choice within two days which ward they want to represent. They cannot. There's only one place for your bump in council. There's not two places, so you'll have to make a choice. And then if the other ward will be decided by election, it will take place within 90 days of the election. All right.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: So if I choose Ward 5 over Ward 32... Ward 32 then will need to have a by-election undertaken within 90 days of the result being declared.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: That is correct. Unfortunately, we have a situation currently that the only residency requirement is that you have to be a registered voter in the municipality. There's no requirement that you must be a a voter registered in the ward that you are contesting. So you have this phenomenon in cases where, in fact, multiple, you know, I know of cases where a person is standing on 20 wards or whatever the case may be, the same person. And I think it's an opportunity for voters to then make their decision on what do they think about somebody who is exploiting this loophole in our legislations.
00:05:03
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if we have this data at hand, Michael, but of however many candidates are registered to contest the local government election in the Western Cape, what proportion, what percentage of them are these people who present themselves in 20 different wards?
00:05:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it's very difficult. In most cases, it is literally coming down to political parties who nominate a person to stand in multiple wards for whatever reason, whether they They don't have enough candidates or even alternatively strategically where they want to exploit the calculation of the formula for PR seats where we have to look at overall proportionality. But either way, that is currently a loophole in our legislation that allows you to stand in more than one ward. Yeah, we'll have to see what Parliament decides about that.
00:05:53
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Michael. Thank you very much. It's going to be a busy week for you and your teams. Michael Hendrick, sir, is the provincial electoral officer for the Independent Electoral Commission here in the Western Cape. We are seven days out for the local government elections. Special votes, as Michael indicated, happening on Monday and on Tuesday. Otherwise, the majority of us will go out, hopefully in our numbers, to go and vote for Michael. a political representation of our choosing in our city council.
