Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | 'This was no election, it was a census': the IEC declaration of the April 1994 general election as free and fair in South Africa: a complex process? |
Author: | Twala, Chitja M. |
Year: | 2006 |
Periodical: | New contree: a journal of historical and human sciences for Southern Africa |
Issue: | 51 |
Pages: | 87-100 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | elections 2004 legitimacy |
Abstract: | The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa was faced with the mammoth task of deciding on the legitimacy of the first non-racial democratic elections in April 1994. Once the IEC pronounced the elections 'free and fair', no other body in the country had the legal power to challenge or overturn it. Despite all the muddles, irregularities and intimidation experienced during the electioneering and election period, the IEC declared the elections free and fair. The author dissects the IEC's predicament and discusses the various criticisms of the IEC declaration. He notes that the phrase 'free and fair' is complex and cannot denote compliance with a fixed, universal standard of electoral competition as no such standard exists. Moreover, the complexity of the electoral process makes the notion of any simple formula unrealistic. Notes, ref., sum. in Afrikaans. [ASC Leiden abstract] |