Analysis of the policy and process of voter registration in South Africa in the 1999 general elections

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The democratic order is still in its early evolutionary stages in South Africa. Although thesuccess of the 1994 democratic elections kindled hope for a promising future, democracyneeds to be safeguarded if it is to develop in South Africa.Safeguarding a democracy requires a constant scrutiny of governing policies and proceduresto ensure that they remain conducive to its positive development. Of fundamental importanceto the transmission of democracy is an electoral system and its policies. Any electiongoverningpolicy that reduces public confidence in the electoral system is not conducive tothe development of a democracy. This study analyses the policy of voter registration as itdirectly impacts on the format of an election. Since this policy is being applied for the firsttime in the short history legitimate democratic elections in South Africa, the study looksbeyond the noble objectives as given by the policymakers. The lEC and the Governmentargue that the policy is aimed at improving the legitimacy of the electoral system byeliminating the ID related forms of electoral fraud. The significance of the study lies in itscritical analysis of the actual policymaking process of this legislation, as well as itsimplementation. In order to assess the democratic legitimacy of the policymaking stage, thestudy takes a closer look at the roles of all the stakeholders in the policymaking process.Further, the study describes the constitutional controversies of the provisions of the policy, aswell as its actual registration process.The understanding behind the latter description is that a policy is of no use if it cannot beimplemented. In short, by describing, explaining and analysing the policy from its historical,legislative, and implementation phases, the study gives an insight into how this new policyrelates to the development of the South African democracy.Although this study found no conclusive evidence of the negative impact of the policy on theoutcome of the election, the nature of debates, the practical difficulties of implementation bythe IEC, as well as the Court debates have all raised new questions that could require furtheranalysis.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University