KwaZulu/Natal voter registration a farce, critics say

DURBAN July 14 Sapa

KwaZulu/Natal's drive to register voters for the local
government elections by offering raffle tickets for returned
application forms has been condemned by critics as a farce that
could lead to fraud.

"It's a joke," said Pravin Amar, a spokesman for Durban lobby
group Build Environment Action Movement.

"Voters are being coaxed into voting with promises that their
names will be entered into a car competition," he said on Friday.

This and other incentive schemes were creating the impression
that the local government elections were some form of raffle that
could enrich voters.

Many voters were handing in piles of duplicated registration
forms in the hope of winning the prize "local election" car offered
by the Durban Transitional Metropolitan Council.

The car competition was confirmed by Durban assistant town
clerk Colin Harris, who said prize offers were intended to
encourage registration.

Many aspirant voters had arrived carrying "armloads" of
registration forms in the hope of increasing their competition
chances.

"There were cases where people arrived with 60 or 70 forms in
their name. But clearly they could only be registered once," Harris
said.

Some observers said such competition schemes created the
potential for administrative hiccups.

National Party KwaZulu/Natal elections co-ordinator Valentin
Volker said the competition scheme would result in bogus forms
being handed in.

"This unfortunate situation would obviously result in too short
a time being available to check the voters' roll," Volker warned.

He said with over one million voters in the Durban metropolitan
area, it would be difficult to check the roll, especially since it
was organised alphabetically.

The roll should therefore be ordered according to addresses,
Volker said.

He also expressed concern over the payment of registration
officials who were allegedly being paid per registration form
submitted.

"This will obviously lead to fraudulant administration because
people will try to boost their income by submitting additional
forms".

KwaZulu/Natal local government spokesman Dr Warwick Dorning
said his department supported innovative ideas on the part of local
councils.

"Local authorities have been given maximum leeway to plan their
own registration campaigns. It was never the intention of
provincial government to prescribe how registration campaigns
should take place," Dorning said.