By Thapelo Sakoana and Zibonele Ntuli

Pretoria - With the date for the impending municipal elections set for 1 March next year, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says it is ready to administer the polls.

Brigalia Bam, chair of the electoral body, urged potential voters to take full advantage of the final voter registration drive this weekend.

Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi announced the date on Thursday. Asked if election day would be declared a public holiday, Mufamadi said cabinet would soon make an announcement in that regard.

Addressing the National Press Club after the announcement, Bam said more than 20,7-million potential voters were on the voters' roll.

This figure, she said, dispelled the myth that people were reluctant to register.

“I think people now realise the value of a vote and we believe that those that have not registered will register this weekend,” she said.

She dismissed insinuations that service delivery challenges at local government would discourage people from participating in the elections.

“People now understand government processes and will now want to vote for accountable people as their part of contributing towards addressing these challenges. We want to make the information accurate that if you stay away from registration, you will not solve these problems," she said.

At least 120 political parties have registered to participate in the election nationally and 34 at municipal level.

Bam said political parties and independent candidates had also played a role in mobilising people to register.

She said the issue of municipal boundaries would not affect the rolling out of the elections. This, she said, was also discussed with traditional leaders on Tuesday in order to get the message to affected communities.

Earlier, Mufamadi said changing provincial boundaries was not meant to disrupt the lives of those who resided or did business in areas designated to fall within one or the other province.

Communities would continue receiving support due to them from the government, irrespective of the province in which they lived, he said.

Mufamadi said the government had taken steps to modify the structure of the local government to make it easier to promote the country's goals. There had been concerns that some municipalities were trapped in a structural arrangement that affected their capacity to perform.

“It will now be possible to use our fiscal instruments such as the Local Government Equitable Share and Conditional Grants to better effect,” he said.

“Mindful of the fact that, by and large, cross-boundary municipalities have been burdened with exclusionary residuals of the apartheid-Bantustan spatial designs, we intend to take extraordinary steps to help accelerate service delivery and the creation of infrastructure,” said Mufamadi.

Bam said parliament had promised that the legislative process of setting new municipal boundaries would be completed by 14 December 2005.

She said the electoral body needs about two months to prepare for the elections from the day the election date is published in the Government Gazette. This gives political parties time to submit their lists of candidates, to finish up their electioneering and to close the voters' roll.

Bam said logistical preparations included the printing of ballot papers, getting nomination lists from political parties and ensuring security at polling stations.

Ballot papers would be delivered at polling stations four days before the elections.

She assured the public that security would be tight at all 18 730 polling stations.

“Minister Mufamadi suggested we meet with police commissioners to brief them about our preparations so that they can also identify their part in tightening security,” she said.

Bam said all presiding officers at polling stations had been trained to execute their work properly.

Source: BuaNews