Hands off IEC, please!

Staff Writer | Wednesday March 5, 2014 10:10

His argument was that the people have registered in small numbers, and therefore called for another supplementary registration, perhaps in two months time.

This was tantamount to interference on the independence of the Electoral Commission, by parliament. It is for the IEC to decide on the feasibility or necessity to call for additional registration, not parliament. In any case, the IEC still reserves the right to do what they believe is possible and necessary. Parliament must amend the act to activate their desires not to instruct government institutions willy-nilly. That is abuse of power. While we appreciate the mandate of our parliament as the ultimate law making body, it may come as a source of concern when MPs have the leverage to instruct government departments how to do their work. Just two months ago, Member of Parliament for Francistown South, Wynter Mmolotsi tabled a motion calling on the same government to investigate the controversial petition that led to the postponement the of Francistown West by-election.

Those who opposed Mmolotsi’s motion cautioned Parliament against interfering in the affairs of the executive, and trashed his calls for a Commission of Inquiry. This was the first time by-elections had to be postponed on the basis of a petition to the Head of State. The petition had all the hallmarks of fraud and therefore, because of the ‘criminality’ aspect, one could forgive parliament for intervening in that instance; but lo and behold, the Mmolotsi motion was watered down.  We are all aware that the IEC has for many months made it public that the organisation is under-resourced to effectively prepare or run the elections. The parliament should have therefore been interested in calling for more resources so that the IEC could publicise the registration and elections adequately. Anything else is populist sound bites amounting to interference and is not done in good faith.

The IEC, like our courts, the police, corruption investigators, and prosecutors should be well resourced and not forced to rely on favours from anybody to do their work diligently. We hope that the IEC is not going to rely on torches, generators, lights and possibly food baskets donated by ‘good Samaritans’ during elections; when all those could have been availed well in time  through proper channels.

The Friday adoption could trigger a spate of other excuses in future that may erode the independence of the IEC from both the executive, and the legislature. In a short period of time we have seen unprecedented and unnecessary postponement of by-elections to the pleasure of the president and his party masquerading as public interest. If we are not careful, next time parliament or the executive will order the IEC to cancel elections for some silly excuse.