The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has been functioning without the three Commissioners and a Director of Elections for several months now. The commissioners’ contracts expired and the IEC has not been able to appoint Commissioners as the matter is still before the courts of law. As a result, the vacancy for the Director of the Elections cannot be filled due to the absence of Commissioners.
In my opinion this crisis has been caused by a series of court cases that were worsened by political interference in the appointments of commissioners. This article shall critically look at the crisis at the IEC that has left the organisation in paralysis.
The IEC is an essential organ that was set up to facilitate free and fair elections in the country. Hence it is imperative that it is equipped to run the electoral process and educate the public on elections and the people’s role in a democratic society. However, the IEC has been facing financial challenges that have had a severe impact on its ability to discharge its duties professionally. Some of the challenges encountered by the IEC include the inability to pay for basic necessities such as water, rent, internet, petrol, electricity and security.
In addition, there has been a halt of key operations of the IEC such as voter education, cleaning the voters’ roll and continuing with voter registration. A frustrated IEC is a threat to our electoral process as we already have a low voter turnout. People are frustrated by the twist in the political arena such as the frequent changes of government in recent years that have not brought us significant developments to speak of.
The Covid-19 pandemic will likely have a negative impact on our country’s political affairs. There is bound to be people who will question the usefulness of voting. Thus voter education is a necessity to keep and promote a culture of political participation and to keep reiterating the importance of voting. Without awareness on the electoral process and an emphasis that we are part of the process and that the process is a necessity and we ought to participate, more people will decide to stay at home on polling day.
Furthermore, the fact that services such as registration are unavailable is a factor that can permanently dissuade people from voting. After being turned away by the IEC because they lack resources such as paper, no one will see the importance of voting. The IEC as a body cannot claim that they can facilitate a process that is meaningful when it is apparent that they are inept.
Furthermore, it is alleged that retired staff have not received their pensions and gratuity and they have been left with no other alternative but to go to the media to voice out their plight. This noise will likely damage the IEC’s standing in the eyes of the people. It will also likely affect the morale of the remaining staff. Knowing you are employed in an organisation that is running out of paper and might be unable to pay you your dues, after years of service, is utterly demoralising.
Even the services you will give and your attitude towards your work will be dictated by the knowledge that you are in a sinking ship. Hence the situation at the IEC ought to be dealt with promptly, as it will create a bad work culture that might persist even after there is an injection of money into the body. The more time is wasted in resolving this problem, the more this culture will be entrenched.
The dysfunction of the IEC is worrying as the country’s next general election is due to happen in the next two years. In fact were it not for the amendment of our constitution that was voted by National Assembly earlier this year it is likely that we would have already gone for elections.
It has become the norm in our country that when the Prime Minister is faced with a vote of no confidence from the majority of MPs, they will rather weigh their chances at the polls than step down in parliament. Had the amendment not been passed and the former Prime Minister Tom Thabane had the option to go for elections, what kind of elections would we have had seeing that the IEC has been on life-support for a while now?
We already have two constituencies that are supposed to hold by-elections. These are the ‘Makhoroana and the Kolo constituencies. The Kolo MP, Putsoane Leeto, died in July this year and no by-election has taken place most likely because of the Covid-19 restrictions.
However, the scenario of ‘Makhoroana constituency indicates a much bigger problem as the MP for the constituency, Lefu Hlomelang, died in December last year. Hence the ‘Makhoroana constituency has lacked parliamentary representation for ten months now and four of those ten months were before the Covid-19 crisis.
Let us remember that not even a nationwide election takes four months to prepare for. Moreover, a burning question is, how long will the people of Kolo and ‘Makhoroana lack a representative to voice out their plight, especially during these hard times that Covid-19 has rendered us?
A dysfunctional IEC is also a threat for our country as post-election violence and discontent are not new things to us. Utterances of election rigging are a norm, despite proclamations even from neutral international observers that elections were free and fair. An experience that will forever stand out in our history regarding dissatisfaction of the electoral outcome is the 1998 post-election violence, which almost put our country to its knees.
It rendered us ungovernable, left us with no infrastructure and crippled our economy, because of the looting of businesses and the burning of buildings. Ours is a fragile political state where we have more parties than are necessary. We also have a high unemployment rate that preceded this pandemic. I think these are desperate times and such times are a catalyst for conflict, hence we can’t afford to have a weak IEC.
Ramahooana matlosa