(IEC) for voter education
24 February 2009
The Embassy of Japan and the Electoral Commission (IEC) today signed a Grant
Contract at Election House in Pretoria as part of the preparations for the 2009
national and provincial elections.
In 2008, the Embassy of Japan approached the Electoral Commission to explore
possible support for the 2009 national and provincial elections programme. The
Government of Japan, through its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security
Projects (GGP) Programme, extended its assistance to the IEC in support of its
voter education campaigns amounting to R3, 377,393. This financial support will
be used to develop and distribute election comic booklets for balloting
education for the 2009 elections.
"I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude once more to
the Government of Japan for its generous support to the Electoral Commission
through the comic booklets for promoting balloting education for this year's
elections. We also wish to thank the ambassador and staff of the Embassy of
Japan for their hard work in ensuring that the partnership that exists between
the IEC and the Embassy of Japan is sustained," said Dr Brigalia Bam,
Chairperson of the Electoral Commission.
For the past 10 years, the Government of Japan has been supporting the IEC's
voter education outreach campaigns by donating, 18 motor vehicles for both the
1999 and 2004 elections, 36 vehicles in total.
In his response, the Ambassador of the Embassy of Japan, Mr Toshiro Ozawa,
said the Government of Japan was proud to join with the IEC in its strenuous
efforts to better education the voter population of South Africa. "In this
regard, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr Bam and her
team to have not only achieved but exceeded, the IEC's target of voter
registration by one million persons," said Mr Ozawa.
Altogether, three million copies of the booklet are being produced and will
be distributed to all nine provincial offices of the IEC for use as balloting
material in order to reach millions of voters before the elections. The
material will be translated into the 11 South African official languages as
well as in Braille and bigger font to cater for the blind and visually
impaired.
This balloting education comic booklet for this year's elections deals with
critical issues that are of importance to the voter. Among these issues are the
following:
* The importance of electoral democracy to South African voters.
* Guidelines for free and fair elections and what this means for the 2009
elections.
* Importance of promoting diverse views, freedom of expression and the role of
the voter and political parties in promoting this.
* Critical information on balloting for first-time voters including those who
need to refresh their memories on what to do once they are in a voting
booth.
* Secrecy of the vote.
The booklets are scheduled for distribution in early March.
For media queries please contact:
Kate Bapela
Cell: 082 600 6386
Issued by: Independent Electoral Commission and Embassy of Japan
24 February 2009
