KNEES are hard to vote for the people of KwaZulu-Natal who are tired of being beaten by the heels of the MKP which won many seats in the Legislative Assembly and not seeing any movement in the government of party cooperation in the country.
This is contained in a study conducted by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which reveals that the people of this state are the ones who have lost hope the most compared to other states. The head of the IEC in the province, Mrs Ntombifuthi Masinga, yesterday told the media at a meeting in Durban, to advise journalists about preparations for local government elections, that the people of the province have given up hope.
“The research shows that the people of this province have given up hope and do not care about voting. They complain that they do not see the difference in the coalition government, and they do not understand why the MKP is not in charge of the government since it won the election,” he said.
The provincial government is jointly run by the IFP, ANC, DA and NFP. The Legislative Assembly has 80 seats, MKP got 37, IFP 15, ANC 14, DA 11, EFF got two and NFP got one seat.
Mrs. Masinga reminded people that if they don’t vote, they are hurting themselves because if there are those who voted, they will announce the results even if they don’t agree with those who didn’t vote.
“If you are not happy, you better go and express your anger at the polls. If you boycott voting while others are voting, you will be treated by someone you don’t want. IMKP is the one that chose not to be part of the cooperation between the parties, that is why it is not part of the government in KZN,” he said.
He pointed out that some voters expressed their anger by saying that they had stolen the voting papers.
“We have done a study to look at the reason why people spoil their vote. It turned out that they express their anger about things they don’t want, and then spoil their vote on election day,” said Mrs. Masinga.
He also pointed out that immigrants are not allowed to run for election as councilors or vote.
“It was spread on social media that there are immigrants who will run for elections. That is something that does not exist because immigrants in this country are not allowed to vote or run for elections in this country.”
He also pointed out that the number of candidates, including independent candidates, is expected to increase due to the increase in the number of parties being registered every day.
The IEC nationally stated that it will open an opportunity on the weekend of June 20, this year for people to register to vote.
The commission has stated that it is ready for the election even though the date of the election has not yet been announced. The election is expected to be held between November and January next year.