The Independent Electoral Commission
-An approach to its Financial, HR Management and ICT functions-
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is an independent organisation established under the Chapter 9 of the South African Constitution not only to conduct elections to the National Assembly, provincial legislatures and municipal councils in South Africa, but also to promote and safeguard democracy.
In 1993, a temporary Electoral Commission was created to manage the first democratic elections of the national and provincial legislatures, which were held in April 1994. The permanent Electoral Commission was established on 17 October 1996, and has since managed general (national and provincial) elections in 1999, 2004, 2009 and recently in 2014, and local (municipal) elections in 2000, 2006 and 2011.
The IEC is constituted by five full-time commissioners and their task is to ensure that elections are free and fair and in compliance with national legislation.
The duties and functions of the Electoral Commission include:
Compile and maintain a voters' roll by means of a system of registering eligible voters by utilising data available from government sources and information furnished by voters;
Compile and maintain a register of parties;
Undertake and promote research into electoral matters;
Develop and promote the development of electoral expertise and technology in all spheres of government;
Continuously review electoral legislation and proposed electoral legislation, and to make recommendations in connection therewith;
Promote voter education;
Declare the results of elections for national, provincial and municipal legislative bodies within seven days after such elections;
Appoint appropriate public administrations...
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...ng better flexibility and redundancy across the network.
In the present, the IEC is conducting research on electronic voting technologies to analyse the benefits of using this technology. Based on international experience, almost every e-voting technology has been technically compromised at some point and the decision on whether to adopt it will need to be underpinned by and sensitive to the South African context.
As we can see, the IEC has been subject to a huge development since its creation, especially in what refers to ICT and skills development. However, they need to keep focused on their goals as well as in continuous improvement, by measuring performance indicators and keeping updated in the newest technologies, to implement when necessary, preventive and/or corrective actions to ensure the delivery of a service with high standards of quality and reliability.
For a democratic country to thrive, they must have a proper electoral system in producing the party to oversee our government. Since its inception in 1867, Canada has been using the first past the post system during elections to decide their leading party. Although we have been using this system for an extended duration of time, the FPTP system is flawed and should be changed. The goal of this paper is to prove the effectiveness of shifting to more of a proportional system, while also exposing the ineptness of Canada’s current system. With other methods advancing and little change of the first past the post system, this system is becoming predated. A variation of the proportional electoral system is key because it empowers voters, increases voter turnout, and creates a more diverse environment. Canada should adopt a more proportionate electoral system at the federal level if we wish to expand democracy.
In this essay I will argue that British General Elections should be conducted using a system of Proportional Representation. First, I will argue that the system would be more democratic as every vote that is cast would be represented and this ...
Since the turn of the twenty first century, in Canada voter turnout has made a significant and consecutive decline. In the last five federal elections on average only sixty-one per cent of eligible voters voted. If each eligible citizen voted in an election the government would be on par with the primary interests of the people. The easiest way to achieve this objective is by implementing a compulsory voting system. Mandatory voting systems are appealing because all citizens are affected by decisions made by the government, so it makes sense to have all those affected apart of the election process. As a result, the voting results would be more representative of the country and that would lead to an increase of stability and legitimacy. It would also be beneficial to Canadians because would cause political parties to address and focus on the needs of every socio-economic level. However, one of biggest problems that accompanies mandatory voting laws is that the choice to exercise the right to vote is taken away. Another primary concern about compulsory voting is that a large number of uninterested and uninformed voters are brought to the polls. Conversely, uninformed voters will become familiar with and learn the polling procedures and electoral system over time and uninterested voters are not forced to mark a name on the ballot. Compulsory voting laws would only make registration and attendance at the polls mandatory, not voting itself. Therefore the freedom to exercise the right to vote or not is still intact. A greater emphasis on alternate voting practices may be established such as electronic or online voting. Positive changes would not only be evident in the policies of political parties but also in the voting procedure. Th...
Previously, Hasen describes Democrats as being the ones who want more people to have access to voting. Republicans, on the other hand, are painted as the ones who want stricter voter registration to preserve the integrity of elections. A problem with our voting system is we cannot be sure of the integrity, as in almost every election, there is some sort of fraud claim. Hasen looks into one of the main problems in our voting system; how we vote. Hasen discusses why different methods of electronic voting are present, what they intended to accomplish by implementing these systems, and the issues associated with
How must these concerns be addressed? Many turn to compulsory voting for answers, believing in its necessity and insisting on the need for compulsion in order to increase the low turnout percentage. In fact, legislation such as Bill S-22 has received introduction into parliament in the past. Though failing to achieve approval when proposed in the 1st Session of the 38th Parliament, which ended in November of 2005 ("Bill S-22 (Historical)"), it strove to “make it compulsory for an elector to exercise the right to vote,” “make it an offence for an elector not to vote,” and “add the words ‘None of the candidates’ to a ballot in order to allow an elector to indicate that the elector does not wish to vote for any of the candidates nominated in his or her electoral district” ("Bill S-22, Summary").
Voting is at the center of every democratic system. In america, it is the system in which a president is elected into office, and people express their opinion. Many people walk into the voting booth with the thought that every vote counts, and that their vote might be the one that matters above all else. But in reality, America’s voting system is old and flawed in many ways. Electoral College is a commonly used term on the topic of elections but few people actually know how it works.
Law Commission of Canada. Voting Counts: Electoral Reform in Canada (2004). Web. 15 Mar 2012.
The issue of electoral reform has become more important than ever in Canada in recent years as the general public has come to realize that our current first-past-the-post, winner-take-all system, formally known as single-member plurality (SMP) has produced majority governments of questionable legitimacy. Of the major democracies in the world, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom are the only countries that still have SMP systems in place. Interestingly enough, there has been enormous political tension and division in the last few years in these countries, culminating with the election results in Canada and the USA this year that polarized both countries. In the last year we have seen unprecedented progress towards electoral reform, with PEI establishing an electoral reform commissioner and New Brunswick appointing a nine-member Commission on Legislative Democracy in December 2003 to the groundbreaking decision by the British Columbia Citizen’s Assembly on October 24, 2004 that the province will have a referendum on May 17, 2005 to decide whether or not they will switch to a system of proportional representation. This kind of reform is only expected to continue, as Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty decided to take BC’s lead and form an independent Citizen’s Assembly with the power to determine whether or not Ontario will have a referendum regarding a change to a more proportional system. There is still much work to do however, and we will examine the inherent problems with Canada’s first-past-the-post system and why we should move into the 21st century and switch to a form of proportional representation.
Tanguay, Brian . "Electoral Reform in Canada: Addressing the Democratic Deficit | Manitoba Law Journal." Robson Hall Faculty of Law. http://robsonhall.ca/mlj/content/electoral-reform-canada-addressing-democratic-deficit (accessed October 21, 2013).
Nakhaie, M. R. (2006). Electoral participation in municipal, provincial and federal elections in Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 39(2), 363-390.
This paper discusses about the recent case, Rowe v Electoral Commissioner [2010] 273 ALR 1 (hereafter Rowe), related with the notions of representative government and representative democracy. Through the discussion of the case, this paper also analyses its significance in Australia.
a whole, must push for a change in the government election process to where the elites do
... local elected representatives elect the members of the Senate. Parliamentary elections consist of an electoral system that involves two rounds. In the first round, candidates obtain election by gaining a majority of votes cast. Round two consists of two or more candidates facing off in a runoff.
On Election Night November 7, 2000, I viewed first hand the election process over the various news broadcasts. To my surprise, events unfolded like none other in recent history. Elections were called prematurely by competing news stations, concessions were given and then revoked, celebration bottles were chilled on the left and right, but corks never flew. These events caused us to question the reliability of our current system of paper ballot voting. Realizing our current system is outdated and vulnerable to multiple problems we should assume futuristic issues of online voting as a responsible and logical innovation.
Blais, Andre. "Electoral Insight." CCL Web: Criteria for Assessing Electoral Systems (1999): 1-6. Web. 26 Aug. 2010.