BuaNews (Tshwane)
Bathandwa Mbola
23 April 2008
Pretoria — A conference discussing the role of the media during the elections is currently underway in Pretoria.
Hosted by the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), under the theme "the role of the media in promoting electoral democracy," the national conference on Media and Electoral Democracy is bringing together relevant stakeholders to discuss these issues.
"Media, both print and electronic, have been an essential and integral element of South African elections and our political system in general," said IEC Chairperson Brigalia Bamin.
Next year South Africa will be holding its fourth National and Provincial Elections since 1994.
In this light, Dr Bam said the IEC, political parties and other major stakeholders in these elections would be making use of various forms of the media to communicate their messages to South Africans.
"It is therefore envisaged that the media will play a significant role in deepening democracy in this country.
"At this conference, we need to examine in depth the role of media in supporting our democracy and in particular in ensuring that all stakeholders in the electoral process are afforded an opportunity to state their case in a fair and equitable manner."
Within the broad theme of "the role of the media in promoting electoral democracy", the conference will also look at the coverage of elections by the electronic media, print media and community based media among other topics to be discussed.
The IEC has officially been administering successful, hassle-free elections and assisting other countries in doing so for ten years.
It was formally established in terms of Chapter 9 of the country's Constitution and the Electoral Commission Act of 1996, is celebrating ten years of existence.
In 1997, when the IEC was established, South Africa did not have a national common voters' roll.
The first voters' roll one was compiled by the IEC in 1999 and contained more than 18 million names.
"Ten years later, the number has grown to more than 20 million," said the commission.
The country also did not have any voting districts until the IEC created 14 650 of them between June and November 1998, for the first registration weekend.
To date there are 18 873 voting districts.
Some of their achievements include the successful declaration of "free and fair" results following four general elections; the absence of violence associated with the electoral contest; and interaction with a broad cross-section of ordinary citizens in the electoral democracy education programme.
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