Chief Electoral Officer Mosotho Moepya: Launch of National Results Operations Centre

Thank you Programme Director Dr Masuku
The Minister of Home Affairs the Honourable Mr Malusi Gigaba
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs the Honourable Mr Des Van Rooyen
The Deputy Ministers of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs the Honourable Mr Obed Bapela and Mr Andries Nel
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of South Africa, Mr Glen Mashinini
Vice Chairperson Terry Tselane and Fellow Commissioners Judge Thami Makhanya; the Reverend Bongani Finca and Ms Janet Love
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs the Honourable Mr Buoang Mashile
Honourable Leaders of Political Parties
Former Chairpersons of the Electoral Commission Justice Johann Kriegler and Dr Brigalia Bam
Chairpersons and leaders of fellow Chapter 9 institutions
Excellencies and members of the diplomatic corps
Members of the National Political Party Liaison Committee
Members of international and domestic observer groups
Chairperson and members of the Municipal Demarcation Board
Representatives of the Security Cluster
Representatives of local government and Municipal Electoral Officers present
Representative of civil society groups and Non-Governmental Organisations
Members of the media
Fellow South Africans
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Biggest elections ever

In just five days voting will begin in the biggest and one of the most important elections in our history – an election which will set new benchmarks for democracy in our country and for the Electoral Commission.

By all measures this is a record-breaking election:

  • We have registered a record number of voters for this election – 26.3 million
  • We have received a record number of special vote applications – over 740 000 which is three times that of 2011
  • We have a record number of voting stations – 22 612
  • We have a record number of parties contesting the elections – 204 (68% more than 2011)
  • We have a record number of candidates – 63 654 (18% more than 2011) – competing for a record number of councillor positions (9 301)
  • We also have a record number of independent candidates – 855 (compared to 754 in 2011)
  • We have a record number of unique ballots – 4 649
  • And we have a record for the largest ballot paper ever – an A3 sized PR ballot paper to accommodate a record 37 parties contesting the Cape Town metro

Preparations

Preparing for these record breaking elections has presented the Electoral Commission with its biggest logistical challenge ever!

But I am pleased to announce we are ready!

For more than two years now we have been planning and preparing for these elections and I am very pleased to report that the preparations are on track.

In many aspects we are actually better prepared than we have ever been for an election because we have had a couple of extra months since the Constitutional window to hold these elections opened on 18 May 2016.

All election materials are ready as provincial warehouses for distribution this week to municipalities. This includes:

  • 153 000 ballot boxes
  • 133 000 voting booths
  • Approximately 1,8million A4 pages of the voters’ roll to provide a copy of the segment of the voters’ roll for each voting station
  • 60 tons of stationery to voting stations including 580 000 pens
  • 45 000 large banners to mark the voting stations

We have also printed a record 73,9 million ballot papers for this election.

These have already been delivered to the provincial warehouses from where they are being distributed to municipal warehouses and ultimately the 22 612 voting stations over this coming weekend.

All the venues for the 22 612 voting stations have been secured. Of these:

  • 64% are in schools
  • 13% are in community centres
  • 8% are places of worship
  • And approximately 5% are temporary structures

We also have 31 mobile voting stations – the majority of which are in KwaZulu-Natal (with 12) and Mpumalanga (also 12).

When it comes to personnel we have recruited and trained over 177 000 election officials. We are pleased to note that over 70% are women – and 40 000 of them are under 25 years old.

More than 138 000 of the staff – about 78% - are unemployed.

We hope the training and the experience which these young people gain from serving their country will stand them in good stead for the future.

The recruitment of the important posts of Presiding and Deputy Presiding Officers has been subjected to more scrutiny that ever before – including by political parties through the Party Liaison Committee system where they had opportunity to object to an applicant on the basis of not meeting requirements.

All electoral staff have also been required to sign a Code of Conduct which holds them to strict requirements of impartiality and integrity.

The National Results Centre

As you can see, the National Results Operations Centre is open and ready for business – as are the 9 provincial results centres.

These results centres are a key aspect of the integrity of the electoral process and continue to be the envy and aspiration of many other countries.

They bring together all key stakeholders – the Electoral Commission, the political parties, observers and the media – in one venue.

This has considerable benefits for the entire process. Firstly it provides for a highly transparent results process – all the stakeholders in this room receive the results at the same time.

As results slips are captured in the municipal electoral offices (MEOs) across the country, the data is transferred to the Electoral Commission’s computer systems and stored in a database.

State-of-the-art IT and GIS applications will rapidly make data available for communication to political parties, the media and the Electoral Commission staff within the venue, and to the nine Provincial ROCs. In addition, data in various formats will be displayed on the projection screens. Graphic interpretations, maps, analyses, running scores and percentages are all popular displays.

Not even I or the Chairperson have any kind of special advantage – we see the results when you see them.

That is a further critical check and balance within the system which provides trust in the outcome of the elections.

The design of results system has also been audited by a top firm of auditors and given the green light.

And the process is also continuously audited during the entire results capture process.

For the statistically-minded of you this National Results Centre is 12 000 sqm; contains about 450 computers and has over 20km of data, fibre and telephone cabling.

For the second time we are proud to offer free Wi-Fi in this and all the provincial results centres to facilitate interaction and communication. (It will also allow our Vice Chairperson to post selfies quickly and easily)

Other technology innovations introduced for this election include:

  • An upgrade to our mobile App which voters can use to check their voting station and to receive results updates. They can also share key election moments, view their candidates, set the notification preferences for results, read news and information on the election processes as they happen, and view their ward councillors. They can also follow the Electoral Commission’s social media feeds on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with developments as they happen.
  • An upgrade to our digital voting game which teaches young people the entire registration and voting process in a fun and interactive way. The game has been downloaded more than 40 000 times ahead of this election.

Communicating with and educating voters

We have also used technology to enhance our communications with voters ahead of this election – and to make it easier and cheaper for voters to get in touch with us.

Our Contact Centre has for the first time been available via Facebook, Twitter and email – and we have provided a USSD string for voters with feature phones to also obtain information regarding their registration. Since its inception in January, the USSD string has been dialled more than 1.7 million times by almost 900 000 voters.

Our Contact Centre has responded to over 63 000 callers, 29 000 queries via Twitter and Facebook, and nearly 17 000 emails.

Our broad communication initiatives to encourage registration and participation in these elections have also spanned both traditional and emerging media. Ahead of this election we have sent almost 10 million SMS messages to potential voters and have engaged with millions more potential voters on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

In the run-up to this election we have also deployed more voter education staff than ever before – deploying almost 2 000 Municipal Outreach Coordinators and Democracy Education Facilities  on the ground delivering civic and voter education to tens of thousands of young and first-time voters. Just since April this year, we have conducted over 48 000 education events.

Addresses

Ladies and gentlemen

The ruling of the Constitutional Court regarding voters’ addresses being on the voters’ roll where available is well known and has been highly publicised and widely reported on.

While the Court has provided a grace period suspending Section 16(3) for this election, the Electoral Commission is required to meet its obligations for all future by-elections and general elections.

Our efforts to collect addresses for voters over the past few months have already made a considerable impact. In January this year the voters’ roll contained insufficient or no addresses for approximately 16,5 million voters.

Today – with the help and support of voters and other partners – we have managed to reduce this to just 4 million. That remains a considerable challenge which we must and will overcome in the next 18 months.

Next week millions of voters will visit their voting station to cast their ballots. This will provide us with a unique opportunity to interact with those for whom we still do not have an address or sufficient particularities.

For this reason we are setting up address collection points at the end of the voting process at each voting station.

This process will not impact on the voting process. In line with the Constitutional Court ruling, those voters whose names appear on the segment of the voters’ roll for that voting station will be allowed to vote whether there is an address for them or not. 

We appeal to voters for whom an address is not currently listed on the voters’ roll to take an extra couple of minutes and provide us their address before they leave the voting station.

Conclusion

Distinguished guests

There is one final record which we require in order to make the 2016 Municipal Elections officially the biggest yet in our country’s history: We need a record number of voters to cast their votes next week.

I am confident that we can set a new record. If our record number of applications for special votes is any indication of interest, then we are going to see a significant participation in these elections.

That would confirm the trend from the 2011 Municipal Elections when turnout jumped to over 57% compared to 48% in 2006.

The time that municipal elections were seen as perhaps less important than national and provincial elections is very much over. The electorate of South Africa is realising that their quality of life and access to key services is dependent on the mandate they will be giving on 3 August 2016 to the public representative of their choice.

From the roads voters drive on; to the electricity keeping their homes warm and lit; to water from their taps; to health clinics, refuse removal and critical other services. All these happen at local level.

That is why our campaign for this election had the slogan: Your future is in your hands.

We are ready, willing and able to provide voters with the opportunity next week to choose those who will oversee local government for the next five years.

It is up to the voters now to grab this opportunity with both hands.

I thank you.

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