According to the Electoral Integrity Global Report, SA runs the second most credible elections on the continent.
The report was tabled by the IEC top brass before the parliamentary portfolio committee on home affairs on Tuesday.
In Africa, the Cape Verde leads with a score of 73, while SA was second, seven points shy.
IEC boss Sy Mambolo boasted that SA was ranked higher than the so-called father of democracy — the US which scored just above 50 points, while most European countries ranked better.
“In comparison with the 30 assessed countries on the continent of America, 21 countries including the US at score: 57, rank below SA, with only one country — Barbados, scoring 66 similar to SA, while only eight countries rank above SA,” Mamabolo told the committee.
“In comparison with the 41 assessed countries in Asia, 34 countries rank below SA, and only seven countries rank above SA.
“In comparison with the 41 European countries, 15 countries rank below SA, Poland scored 66, while the majority (25 countries) rank much higher than SA, the majority of them scoring above 70.”
SA measured well in the areas of electoral laws, electoral procedures, vote counting, results index and electoral authorities, scoring well above 70 in these subcategories.
However, things were not so rosy with voter registration, media coverage and campaign finance.
On campaign finance, SA was found wanting, scoring 41 points in 2014 and doing worse going down six points in the last general elections in 2019.
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