DA plans 'free and fair elections' Bill

The DA is to table a Bill in Parliament to allow the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to ensure free and fair elections, MP James Selfe said yesterday, according to a BDlive report. The Free and Fair Elections Members' Bill would allow the IEC to play ‘a much more activist role’ in ensuring free and fair elections, said Selfe. ‘At the moment what tends to happen is that the IEC tells us to either approach the Electoral Court or the police, but the police are busy solving criminal cases and the Electoral Court takes a long time and it is very expensive….what we are asking the IEC in line with what it had previously committed to do, is to create an office for electoral offences to which one can report instances of electoral fraud or maladministration,’ Selfe said. In terms of the Bill, the IEC would probe cases reported to it and hand over evidence to the NPA, he said.