26 million voters, just one future

02 August 2016 - 08:23 By SHAUN SMILLIE, SHENAAZ JAMAL and NATHI OLIFANT

As 26 million registered voters finally make up their minds about whom to vote for tomorrow, the political parties are engaged in last-minute campaigning and the police are preparing for a tense election day. More than 59,000 police officers will be deployed nationwide, with special attention being given to 650 voting hot spots.Acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane at a press briefing yesterday would not reveal where these hot spots were but hinted that Vuwani, in Limpopo, and Mamelodi, in Gauteng, were among them. Police in KwaZulu-Natal said there were 167 hot spots there.Phahlane said police deployments were based on intelligence gathering. Police would be assigned to polling stations and police vehicles would escort ballot papers to and from the stations."We have adequate deployment in Gauteng to respond to any situation," Phahlane said. Live results, cool maps, fierce battlegrounds: follow the local elections on our web app:http://bit.ly/2apwZKU The army is on hand to assist the police if ordered to do so by President Jacob Zuma. On election day the defence force will assist the Independent Electoral Commission with transportation logistics, such as providing helicopters to move ballot papers to otherwise inaccessible areas, said Department of Defence spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini."I have authorised the employment of more than 2000 members of the SANDF to assist the SAPS to maintain law and order in the run-up to, and during, the elections in all nine provinces," Zuma said."They will be on duty until August 10." Zuma said people should celebrate their democracy by going to the polls."We are encouraged that, for the first time in our history, this election will see 200 political parties and over 61000 candidates participating, which reflects the maturity of our democracy, which continues to reflect the will of the people," Zuma said.Political analysts felt police saturation on the day would probably ensure a fair election but there is concern about protests leading up to polling day.Of particular concern is the number of political killings this year. Police say there have been at least 25 politically motivated killings across the country. Most were in KwaZulu-Natal, and violence monitor Mary de Haas believes political violence will have the greatest effect on eThekwini's Glebelands Hostel."There will be no free elections here, as people were too scared to register to vote," said De Haas.She was worried by the lack of protection for people as they returned home after voting.Political killings in KwaZulu-Natal occurred in Harding, Newcastle, Nongoma, Pietermaritzburg, Ladysmith, Estcourt and Inchanga.Other provinces where there have been political killings include North West and Eastern Cape. Political analyst Andre Duvenhage said election violence in Tlokwe and Vuwani could influence voter turnout in those areas.Another worry, he said, was what would happen in the big tightly contested metros such as Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Joburg if the ANC were to lose power."The concerns are not what will happen during the elections but if the ANC is going to lose control in one or more of those metros then we can expect high levels of instability," said Duvenhage."We have seen the highest levels of conflict and instability before an election since 1994. "It is going to affect fairness and freeness of elections and I believe one of the outcomes is probably going to be high levels of political empathy. How this is going to affect the outcome of the elections is not certain," he said.Karen Heese, an economist for Municipal IQ, said there had been a peak in protests at the beginning of this year but their frequency had fallen off in the past few months.However, in June there was major unrest in Tshwane, with widespread looting and destruction of property purportedly caused by unhappiness with the ANC's decision to field Thoko Didiza as its mayoral candidate.Heese said that voter dissatisfaction could influence turnout at the polls."In areas of high-level conflict in the past, like Khutsong (2006) and Bekkersdal (2014), there was low turnout," she said.The IEC has said it is happy with the start of the elections, saying that special votes have successfully been captured yesterday...

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