Politics.za

Cape Town. January 2006. You’re the official opposition. Local municipal elections are two short months away and you might actually have a chance at winning control over a major metropolitan municipality thereby giving yourself some much needed authority and proving to people you can actually govern before the next national elections.

You might have a chance that is, if your local membership weren’t infighting like schoolgirls.

Jacob Zuma has said that he will be campaigning for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal before the local elections in March 2006. This despite the ANC NEC trying to make him persona non grata in the ANC.

Now call me cynical but I have a feeling this will be less of Jacob Zuma campaigning for the ANC and more of Jacob Zuma campaigning for… well Jacob Zuma. If he’s going to get back in the ANC succession battle the local elections will be the first logical place to insert himself back into the hearts and minds of the ANC electorate before the ever important ANC NEC elections in 2007.

If Zuma does campaign and the ANC puts the kibosh on the IFP, which they might very well considering the state the IFP are in, it might give him some momentum going into 2007.

The IEC has stated that in next years local municipal elections there will be no special voting. That is if you can not physically get to the polling station where you are registered you will not be able to vote.

But here’s a telling quote from IEC official Mawethu Mosery

We know that many people will suffer, but there is nothing we can do because special voting during local government elections is administratively impossible

Oh for pete’s sake it’s not “administratively impossible” because plenty of other countries manage to do it with no problems. Here’s how it works:

1. Have voters who will not be able to physically vote call an IEC hotline to ask for a postal voting card. Some identity verification is done (fax copy of ID, go to IEC office etc etc).
2. IEC sends a voting card with a return envelope to voter and explains that the card must be returned by the 15th April.
3. Cards returned on time are counted, which should not take long at all seeing as they’re expecting 200 000 people to be affected by these rules, and the voters are made ineligible to vote on March 1st (to avoid double voting).
4. Updated voters rolls are distributed to local election polling stations by 28th April.
5. Normal municipal voting takes place as per normal with postal votes being added to the totals.
6. Democracy prevails!

So when can I expect my call up to IEC HQ?

Latest poll numbers show that the IEC has registered 82% of all available voters. How many will turn up on the 1st of March 2006 is another story.

Mark your calendars! Municipal elections will take place on the 1st of March 2006.

This is gonna be a very revealing election. Firstly we’ll see if voter dissatisfaction with service delivery will actually translate to people not voting for the ANC (or not voting at all).

We’ll also see if voters still remember their distate for floor crossing. If they do expect to find some floor crossing Nats without a job, especially if Cape Town goes back to under DA control.

And thirdly we’ll see if Mbeki can get the ANC membership back under control and moving forward. I’m not sure how much control the ANC national organisation has over the local electoral lists but he’ll be trying to get anybody he feels is a threat to his plans out of any sort of position of influence as soon as possible and these elections will be the first opprotunity before the next ANC NEC is chosen in 2007.

Just a reminder that the 19th/20th of November is your absolutely last chance to register to vote. With the upcoming municipal elections (rumoured to be taking part during March 2006) promising to have the potential to do some serious shaking up in your local municipality you don’t want to be left out.

The IEC has all the details including a handy page to check if you’re already registered.