Durban - With Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) chairperson Glen Mashinini’s term of office set to end in April, My Vote Counts and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC) have written an urgent letter to the Office of the Chief Justice requesting a deadline extension on the nomination of candidates.
Currently, the deadline for the nomination of candidates for IEC positions has been set for 18 February, but MVC and Casac want an extension to the deadline.
In a joint statement, MVC and Casac say that they had noted that the Office of the Chief Justice, in a Government Gazette called for ‘Nominations of Candidates for Appointment to the Electoral Commission’ on 4 and 6 February respectively, with a two-week deadline.
The two organisations said they strongly believed that the call was not sufficiently accessible to the public.
“There has been no media statement nor social media communique from your office and the IEC. Thus, there has been almost no coverage of the nomination process in the media; from what we can tell, there was just a single article published in the Daily Maverick.
“In this context, we would like to request an extension to the deadline so that we can publicise this call and thereby give opportunity for the public to engage with it and partake in the process. We would also encourage your office to do the same,” MVC and Casac said in the statement.
They added that the IEC was one of the most important institutions of South Africa’s democracy, and it was critical that the people appointed to serve in the IEC were competent and impartial.
They said that it was also important that any appointment processes were well advertised, open and transparent so that the public can monitor and engage the appointments to protect the independence of the IEC.
“There was openness and transparency for the equivalent process in 2018. This time, however, the process is much less open. As the body overseeing this process, we believe that the Office of the Chief Justice needs to do more to ensure openness and transparency in the process.
“We ask for a deadline extension of the invitation for the nominations for a period of two weeks, and we would appreciate a response from your office before the current deadline of 18 February,” Casac and MVC said.
Political Bureau