Plan to ban phones during Mangaung voting
2012-12-13 16:35
Sabelo Ndlangisa, City Press
Mangaung - The ANC's electoral commission says it will table a proposal to ban the use of cellphones at the polling booths in Mangaung.
If the conference adopts the proposed rule, it means the ballot will be completely secret and lobbyists would not know how individual delegates have voted.
There had been complaints in some provinces in the past that political leaders monitored how delegates voted by asking them to take pictures of their used ballots after voting.
There were reports that something similar happened at the hotly contested ANC conference in Polokwane five years ago.
Electoral commissioner Tshilidzi Ratshitanga has also refused to name ANC leaders who accepted nomination to contest leadership in Polokwane, despite Mathews Phosa publicly confirming that he would contest the position of deputy president.
The commission said this was partly to allow an independent agency to verify whether the nominees met the qualifying requirement of being a member in good standing for at least five years.
Ratshitanga said they also wanted to allow branches to continue engagement about leadership, which was likely to continue until the start of the conference.
"Until we have finished that process we can’t publicise names. It does a disservice to branches who are still engaging one another,” he said.
Deputy President Motlanthe has now publicly confirmed he will be contesting President Jacob Zuma for party presidency.
Commission spokesperson Frene Ginwala said voting for the top six positions and the 80-member national executive committee will be done through a secret ballot.
Ginwala said candidates would need 25% of votes from the conference floor to qualify to be added onto the ballot.