By Naadiya Adams

The Independent Electoral Commission is adamant that they are ready for the elections with political parties only having two months to persuade South Africans to vote for them.

Two of the biggest points of contention overshadowing this year’s elections, is will it be free and fair; and are political parties ready?

Radio Islam chats to Political Analyst Professor Dirk Coetzer who says the upcoming elections have not been compromised in spite of the political controversy that has surrounded it.

He says political scientists have moved past whether the elections is free and fair, now they are assessing the integrity of the electoral commission. He believes this assessment will give a better indication of what to expect in this year’s election.

“There’s lots of work now being done which no longer refers to the freeness and fairness of the election but rather look at the integrity of it and this is the move that has happened which I think is more informative and provides a better indication of the real nature of the election,” explains Coetzer.

The IEC has received a substantial amount of criticism for re-opening candidate registrations with many saying they are acting in favour of the ANC but political analyst Amanda Gouws says that may not be the case as many opposition parties will benefit from being able to register more candidates.

She also mentions however, that by the IEC failing to take the Constitutional Court route from the onset, when the elections were first brought into question, and only doing so after consultation with the ANC shows partisan towards the ANC by the IEC. Gouws believes that many parties failed to register candidates due to a lack of funds.

“I think that so many municipalities didn’t submit a list because of a money problem, you have to pay for every candidate that contests,” says Gouws.

She says the ANC hadn’t submitted for 93 municipalities for the same reason, as they have also been struggling to pay their salaries as recent reports have revealed.

Parties need to cough up R3500 per candidate at a metro level, R2000 on a local level and R1000 at a district level while independents also pay R1000.

The idea of “free and fair” is open to interpretation says Coetzer, as the term is not very well defined, but across the globe there have been very few cases where elections were declared not free and fair.

“The idea of freeness and fairness is very much in the minds of the voters on the one hand and in the minds of the political parties on the other hand. Those political parties that have done well are not going to complain that elections were not free and fair… the parties who are not doing so well that has problems or goes to the electoral court,” said Coetzer.

Voter registration weekend will take place from the 18^th September and 19^th September 2021, while the nation will head to the polls itself on November 1^st.