Candles at ready for CT poll

2006-02-27 18:57

Cape Town - The independent electoral commission has pronounced itself ready for Wednesday's local-government elections in Cape Town, even if the count has to take place by candlelight.

"We are not too worried," said provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson on Monday of the city's recent spate of power cuts.

"Our forebears did many things by candlelight."

Sampson said municipal electoral officers were stocking up on lamps and candles. Some have gone as far as testing how long a candle burned, to calculate how many to buy.

Sampson said the vote itself should not be affected as it was taking place in daylight hours - from 07:00 to 19:00.

The so-called "zip-zip" machine, which reads the barcode in voters' identity documents and holds a copy of the voters' roll, also worked on battery power, and was not indispensable.

The vote could be done manually if need be.

Seven days to declare election

The real test, if the power went out, would come with feeding the vote counts into the IEC mainframe, said Sampson.

Electricity generators were available in all the big centres.

Sampson said: "And, anyway, we have seven days in which to declare an election. We are not too concerned."

The IEC had received assurances from electricity providers that "things will be fine" on polling day, he added.

As for predictions of bad weather, there was very little the IEC could do about that.

There was an 80% chance of rain in the metro area on Wednesday afternoon, and 60% for the West Coast region.

"If they get there early, they probably won't get wet," was Sampson's message to voters.

"No prayer is going to change the weather. This is one thing over which the IEC has no control."

'Mishap' with ACDP deposit

He said the commission had finished reprinting more than three million ballot papers after the Constitutional Court gave the African Christian Democratic Party the go-ahead last week to contest the Cape Town municipal elections.

The party was initially out of the running after the R3 000 deposit it was required to pay to contest the metro council was not reflected on the IEC's books because of an administrative mishap.

Sampson said ballot papers would be delivered to sub-depots later on Monday for distribution to the city's 758 voting stations on polling day.

All security arrangements were in place, and a special eye was being kept on Khayelitsha - where a number of independent candidates were taking on the ruling African National Congress.

ANC/DA race 'too close to call'

Sampson said: "I am confident we will have a peaceful election."

Just under 1.5 million residents had registered to vote, with 21 political parties and 28 independent candidates contesting Cape Town's 105 wards on Wednesday.

Analysts said the race between the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance in the city was too close to call.

"It will depend a lot on where the former New National Party people go," said University of Cape Town political scientist Zwelethu Jolobe.

He did not expect the newcomer Independent Democrats to gain much from the NNP's demise.

The Freedom Front Plus could take some of the NNP's white voters, while the African Christian Democratic Party also might score a few ballots.

Service delivery a major gripe

The NNP is to officially cease existing after polling day after joining the ranks of the ruling ANC.

Jolobe expects poor municipal service delivery, including the recent power cuts, to boost voter turnout. To whose benefit this would be, was not clear.

"It would depend where," Jolobe said.

Township residents irritated by poor service delivery might opt to vote in larger numbers.

But, ironically, traditional ANC supporters were unlikely to change their affiliation in spite of their displeasure.

In more-affluent areas, however, the DA could benefit from general disquiet over the recent blackouts.

Power cuts playing a big part

Jolobe expected the ANC and DA to end the poll within 10% of each other's voter percentages.

"It is going to be very, very close."

Stellenbosch University political analyst Pierre du Toit agreed that poor service delivery and power cuts would be uppermost on the minds of voters.

The ID has ruled out entering into a coalition with any other party.

- SAPA