The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has pleaded with the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Law and Public Safety Cluster to request registered parties to invoke Section 66 of the national constitution to appoint acting commissioners.
This, according to IEC electoral operations manager Pontšo ‘Mamatlere Matete, will save the elections administrator from the misery that is has languished in since January last year when the contracts of the erstwhile commissioners expired; more recently, the contract of the director of elections also expired in June this year.
During the committee sitting on Wednesday, Matete and other IEC officers tabled some of the operational challenges they were experiencing in the absence of commissioners and the director. Preparations for the 2022 national assembly elections were top of the list of their challenges.
The committee, on the other hand, agreed that IEC matters were very pressing and that there is need for relevant stakeholders to look for options such as invoking the said section to save the IEC from collapsing.
