Hope Ntanzi|Published
As preparations for the local government elections on November 4 continue, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) will hold its second and final test of the election results system on October 26, following the conclusion of an independent audit.
Five political parties were granted access to the system between October 5 and October 12 in order to evaluate its overall dependability, security resilience, integrity, and functionality, according to Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo.
The parties were the Democratic Alliance (DA), African National Congress (ANC), African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus).
The review took place alongside an external independent audit and the continued implementation of remedial measures.
Will of the voter
Mamabolo said the commission had given the parties an opportunity to assess the system’s operational and security arrangements ahead of the elections.
“Those are the parties who took advantage of the opportunity that the commission created for them to find their comfort with the operational modalities as well as the security modalities of the results system,” he said.
The system records votes and calculates the allocation of seats in councils.
“The result system is an important system that really is the bearer of the will of the voter, because ultimately it is the results system that does the records of all votes made and does the calculation for representation in councils,” Mamabolo said.
Final test follows independent audit
The commission will conduct the final dry run after the independent audit has been completed.
Mamabolo said the exercises were intended to test whether the infrastructure deployed for the elections functioned properly and integrated with the various election applications.
“The purpose of the dry runs is to test the functionality and the integration of deployed infrastructure in conjunction with the various election applications,” he said.
The final exercise is scheduled for October 26, nine days before voting takes place.
In a further update on election preparations, Mamabolo said the National Results Operations Centre would be based at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand and launched on October 28.
The centre would form part of the commission’s operations for the elections..
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
IOL Politics