Cape Town — Election Watch under Defend Our Democracy is mobilising other civil society’s in an effort to join its quest to observe elections to ensure they are free and fair.
Executive director at Defend Our Democracy, Zaakirah Vadi, said the Election Watch campaign was an observer campaign and observers were intended to be indpendent, The Citizen reported.
“Election Watch is a national civil society campaign aimed at “observing and pronouncing on the integrity of the 2024 national and provincial government elections in South Africa. We aim at ensuring the overall success of the elections through educating and mobilising South Africans to participate in the election process and to become active participants in our democracy,” she said.
“Observers are not linked to any political party. They can be from civil society organisations or ordinary citizens. They have access to all voting stations and can watch proceedings from the time stations open to the time they close, and the counting process that follows,” Vadi noted.
Join us tomorrow for our Election Watch Workshop in Gauteng.
We look forward to seeing you there!For more info visit: https://t.co/fmSIRXgtD2
To become an election watch observer register here: https://t.co/4xwDYNc2jg #SAelections2024 #ElectionWatch #DefendOurDemocracy https://t.co/HfVOLeEhtW pic.twitter.com/kKROMc9yBr
— Defend Our Democracy (@ForDemocracySa) February 23, 2024
Observers are required to share their feedback from voting stations to an observation app. The feedback provided will give Election Watch a live, on-the-ground report directly from the voting stations. The information will then be processed and analysed to pronounce the integrity of the electoral process.
Vadi said observers would be looking out for “high-risk issues, such as violence or potential voter intimidation”. Observers will check whether the electoral process is free and fair and if voting stations were in order. This includes the counting process, recording any disputes, and check whether final votes were recorded correctly.
“Observers will check that this results sheet is placed in a tamper-proof bag before being transported by the IEC [Electoral Commission of South Africa] presiding officer to the IEC’s regional counting centre,” she said.
Vadi explained that the Election Watch is a voluntary campaign and encouraged people to participate.
“The IEC’s response to Election Watch mobilising other civil society movements to be observers was “IEC will publish a list of accredited observers in due course”.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: X/@IECSouthAfrica
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Matthew Petersen
