Observer mission backs local elections, urges voting-process improvements

A joint civil-society observer mission has assessed South Africa's local government elections as free and fair, while identifying areas where voting procedures could improve.

SABC News reported on 7 November that the mission comprised the South African Council of Churches, the National Foundations Dialogue Initiative and the Women's Election Mechanism for Peace.

The organisations deployed 619 trained, accredited observers across all nine provinces for the 4 November polls. Their deployment focused on voting districts identified as priorities through security information and historical analysis.

According to SABC's account of a council of churches statement, the mission found no major issues of concern and praised the Electoral Commission's administration.

However, it called for improvements in queue management, Voter Management Devices and the time taken to process voters.

This is the mission's assessment as reported by SABC, rather than an independent audit by EBNewsDaily or an official declaration of every council's results.

Archive photograph: the South African flag, photographed on 31 October 2008, not an election observation scene. Photo: Chris Eason / Wikimedia Commons. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_South_Africa.jpg . Licence: CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ . Cropped and resized for display.