The work of the Independent Electoral Commission has just got a whole lot harder. The commission has the onerous task of verifying - before the upcoming local government elections - the addresses of the millions of voters who live in informal settlements or are in transit between towns, cities and provinces.This is the upshot of yesterday's Constitutional Court ruling invalidating by-elections in seven wards in Tlokwe, North West, in September and December 2013, on the grounds that they were not free or fair.The results of the elections, won by the ANC, were challenged by independent candidates, who complained that voter registration, and the voters' roll compiled from the registrations, were inaccurate.The Constitutional Court agreed and found that the commission had a duty to verify the addresses of all voters ''to ensure that the voter is at the time of registration ordinarily resident in that voting district''.Previously, proof of identity was sufficient and the commission had accepted the addresses provided by voters without requiring proof of their validity.Verifying the addresses of shack-dwellers or of people in transit will be a mammoth task - and the commission will have only a few months in which to carry it out.Its failure would mean that large numbers of potential voters would be disenfranchised - and political parties would lose out.The upcoming elections promise to be the most fiercely contested in our history - especially in the areas in which the urban poor reside - so the stakes are incredibly high.In order to verify voters' addresses and publish an accurate voters' roll, the IEC will have to enlist the support of national and local government departments, and launch education and publicity drives. Crucially, it will have to secure the buy-in of all political parties.But its extraordinary successes in delivering credible elections since 1994 suggest that it will be up to the task...