IEC Faced Unprecedented Challenges During 2024 General Elections, South Africans Discuss

• The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) appeared before Parliament to discuss the challenges it faced during the recent general elections
• The IEC's top officials said that the Commission faced a lot of challenges, including court cases and misinformation from social media
• South Africans questioned the validity of the elections, and some believed that there was voter tampering

Tebogo Mokwena, a Briefly News current affairs journalist based in Johannesburg, South Africa, has covered policy changes, cabinet reshuffles, the State of the Nation Address, Parliamentary Proceedings, and politician-related news, as well as elections, at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News for over seven years.

PARLIAMENT, WESTERN CAPE — The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said it was beset with a myriad of challenges during the 2024 general elections, including court cases, glitches, and misinformation.

The Commission appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs and presented a report of the elections. The IEC's CEO, Sy Mamabolo, said that one of the challenges the IEC faced was disinformation on social media.

Mamabolo added that better and stronger ways are needed to manage social media because myths and misinformation threaten the electoral process. He said the IEC had a successful anti-disinformation campaign with civic society and political parties.

No evidence of vote rigging

Mamabolo asserted that evidence showed that there was no external infiltration of the commission, which could have led to vote tampering. He added that the National Results Operation Centre remains a theatre of electoral transparency. He said that it is a window through which South Africa's electoral process can be perceived transparently.

Court applications against the IEC

The Commission's chairperson, Mosotho Moepya, said that 80 court applications were lodged against the IEC, and it won 78 of them. Two of them are under appeal. The MKPart is one of the parties that took the IEC to court and accused it of rigging the votes. The party argued that it was robbed of votes.

2024 general elections in a nutshell

For the first time since 1999, the African National Congress (ANC) lost its majority when it slipped to just over 40% of the votes in the 2024 general elections. No political party received a majority of the votes. The Democratic Alliance received over 20% of the votes, and the MK Party was the third-most voted.

The ANC, the DA, the Inkatha Freedom Party, the United Democratic Movement, the Patriotic Alliance, and Al Jamah-ah joined to form the Government of National Unity. The MK Party was named the official opposition.

What did South Africans say?

Netizens weighed in on the challenges they believed the IEC faced.

Mhembu Mumu Mcirah said:

"I think we should vote online to avoid what happened during the last elections."

PE Sparkle Marobyane asked:

"Why are we still doing everything manually in this process?"

Rele Joy said:

"I'm starting to think votes are getting tampered with."

Simphiwe Sibusiso Nzima said:

"We want our votes."

Tebogo Mohau said:

"These are on the ANC's payroll."

Syanda Khumalo said:

"No challenges but planned stealing of votes."

IEC rejects registration of Islamic State party

In a related article, Briefly News reported that the IEC confirmed that it rejected the application of the Islamic State as a political party. The IEC said that it failed to fulfil the requirements necessary to register a political party.

The Islamic state in Africa failed to secure the necessary number of signatures. It also did not take effort to publicise the political party.

Source: Briefly News