The misgivings of the micro parties about the IEC’s handling of their votes are risible. (The Mercury, June 3).
The clutter of these micro, pop-up parties generated confusion, which needs to be avoided in the future. There were 34 of them that failed to achieve even a 0.25% vote tally. Their presence on the ballot sheets was not a tribute to multi-party democracy but an indictment of the absence of regulations needed to provide sensible guidelines so as to eliminate opportunistic adventurers.
Elections are won by working on a presence and profile between elections. Popping up out of nowhere just before an election and plastering posters on poles is not how votes are garnered. To be successful at the polls requires having done the hard yards in the years between elections.
In future, any new party or group wishing to contest elections should be required to make a R2 million deposit with the IEC so as to give some credence to their bona fides.
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