Elections: What security plans are in place?

With only a week to go until Election Day (7 May), the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has been very busy rolling out security plans so that voting runs smoothly on the day. The People’s Assembly spoke to Courtney Sampson, Western Cape Electoral Officer, about some of the IEC’s security plans to ensure that the elections aren’t just free and fair, but that they are safe and free from intimidation as well.

“We meet on a regular basis, all the state security structures [such as] the South African Police Service, the national defence force, traffic, disaster risk management and I co-chair meetings. Intelligence is also there to deliver their reports.” Sampson said.

Sampson’s provincial IEC office also has a Conflict Management Panel who he explains are “proactively involved in gaining information from communities in the province” in the run up to the elections.

On Election Day, when IEC officials move ballot papers, police escorts always accompany them and usually two police officers are assigned to each voting station. In areas known as “hotspots”, six officers are deployed.

When asked what places are considered hotspots in the Western Cape, Sampson replied, “Any area where you have high population density, small geographic space and no infrastructure is potentially a difficult area. The areas we are looking at now are those that experience gangster-related activity”.

Sampson is particularly concerned about the polling station in Sikalo near Mitchells Plain. He describes the people living there as “a very vulnerable community of black people” who have been intimidated by an established coloured community living on the other side of the road. He goes on to explain that the latter have encouraged drivers to hoot if they want the Sikalo community removed “and it is that kind of provocation that can cause people to react” on election day.

According to Sampson, “There have been some unfortunate incidents already of political intimidation“, although he does not give specific details. Speaking more generally he says that political parties should “calm down in terms of ways they campaign” adding that it is “irresponsible” of some parties to be constantly “rubbishing other parties”. He added that negative campaigning is done with impunity and we can do without “those levels of antagonism”.

One of the roles Sampson will be performing on Election Day from his base at the provincial results centre in Belville, in Cape Town, will be to consult with the security structures monitoring the 1578 voting stations in the Western Cape.

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