Pretoria - A South African Development Community (SADC) mission, deployed in South Africa to observe the country’s elections this week, has expressed satisfaction over the manner the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) conducted the 2014 poll.
Millions of South Africans on Wednesday went to the polls to cast their vote in the country’s fifth all-race democratic elections since 1994.
“The mission also learned that elections conducted abroad had gone smoothly. The mission observed that the signage at voting stations was clear, most voting stations opened on time, with the exception of a few where voting material was delivered late,” it said in a statement read to journalists on Friday.
The mission noted that the elections marked the country’s 20 years of freedom and democracy and that they were the first to be held in the absence of the country’s first black former president Nelson Mandela, who passed on in December last year.
“All electoral activities carried a component to mark the 20 years of democracy in South Africa.”
The mission deployed delegates to four of the nine provinces.
It said the process of transmitting results from polling stations to the results centre was transparent and followed best practices.
The mission was also satisfied with the high number of women, who worked at polling stations, saying this was in keeping with the SADC gender and development protocol. It said media campaigns and constant briefings reflected the highest levels of professionalism on the part of the IEC. – SAnews.gov.za
