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Independent Newspapers<\/p>\n
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, who chaired the forum. File photo: Cindy Waxa<\/p>\n
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Cape Town – Opposition parties, concerned about the fairness of next year\u2019s elections, are to devise a plan to \u201clevel the political playing field\u201d. <\/p>\n
Twelve opposition political parties represented in Parliament, provincial legislatures and municipal councils around the country, gathered on Monday to thrash out ideas to try to ensure the scheduled general elections would be free and fair. Some of their plans include proposing amendments to the Electoral Act and approaching the Constitutional Court. <\/p>\n
The parties also raised their concern about the perceived bias of the SABC, the accreditation of international observers and political party funding. <\/p>\n
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, who chaired the forum, said the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) conference in 2007 identified a number of \u201ccritical areas\u201d which required urgent attention \u201cto level the political playing field\u201d before and after the 2009 elections. <\/p>\n
Holomisa said some of the matters discussed included party funding, independence of the IEC, or lack thereof, appointment of election staff, party agents and the role of the National Intelligence Agency, among others. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have made some progress, but sadly, most of these resolutions could not be implemented because the ruling party and its IEC simply did not want to come to the table and talk sense,\u201d said Holomisa. <\/p>\n
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Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota said as patriotic opposition parties they had a duty to ensure they raised the level of quality of democracy.
\nFile photo: Courtney Africa<\/p>\n
INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS<\/span><\/p>\n Holomisa claimed that in 1994 the SABC \u201chad given large coverage to the manifesto launches and closing rallies of the ruling party\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cThis unfairly promoted the ruling party. It was only after intervention of the multiparty forum that the situation improved somewhat,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe find ourselves at the doorstep of the 2014 national and provincial elections, confronted with too many of the same issues that faced us in 2009 and previous elections,\u201d said Holomisa. <\/p>\n Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota said as \u201cpatriotic\u201d opposition parties they had a duty to ensure they raised the \u201clevel of quality of democracy. <\/p>\n \u201cWe must make sure the ruling party does not monopolise to its own advantage or to the disadvantage of others. Going to elections we don\u2019t want to see a situation similar to Zimbabwe in which those who are in power abuse that power so as to distort the outcomes of the elections,\u201d said Lekota. <\/p>\n Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald said it was normally the opposition parties which experienced the most problems in any election. <\/p>\n \u201cThe governing party will use any means and method to ensure they stay in power. Many issues will have to be addressed,\u201d said Groenewald. <\/p>\n National Freedom Party spokesman Nhlanhla Khubisa said the focus should be on the voters themselves. He said for opposition concerns to be taken seriously, legislative amendments would be required. <\/p>\n \u201cFor a voice to be strong it must be legislated.\u201d <\/p>\n IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe said a \u201cmore equitable\u201d formula to give parties fair media coverage was needed by the SABC. <\/p>\n United Christian Democratic Party MP Isaac Mfundisi said the SABC\u2019s giving precedence to one party \u201ctilts the playing field\u201d. <\/p>\n Political Bureau<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Independent Newspapers United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, who chaired the forum. File photo: Cindy Waxa Related Stories IFP\u2019s brave face over ANC defections PAC to re-examine it\u2019s relevance \u2018Passion for reading the key to success\u2019 Cape Town – Opposition parties, concerned about the fairness of next year\u2019s elections, are to devise a plan to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-21888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}