ESSAY 1

INTRODUCTION

The Electoral Commission of South Africa is responsible for making sure that the elections in South
Africa are free and fair for all citizens or voters.

MAIN CONTEXT:
Free and Fair Elections

Free and Fair Elections in South Africa’s Democracy entails that every citizen has a freedom to choose
their own public representative without being intimidated by anyone ,it also entails that all South
Africans citizens or voters must be treated equally with respect,regardless of gender, race ,or
status ,nobody is above anyone , everyone in the eyes of the law of democracy is equal.

Democracy support the belief of individual freedom , meaning that each and every person has
a right to make their own decisions ,citizens can voice their opinions by choosing which
political party they want ,with no fear , hence it is said that”your vote is you secret “,
you do not owe anyone any explaination in terms of who you voted for.

Galbraith’s Theory of Power

Condign power wins submission by making the altrnative to submission sufficiently

painful ,Compensantory power wins submisssion by offering a reward of some kind ,and
Conditioned power is exercised by changing belief ,persuasion ,education,or social
commmitment to what seems natural ,proper or right(Galbraith,1983).Condign power and
Compensantory power are both typically overt ,both the person submitting and the person
enforcing is consciously aware of the different options available and the submission,while
conditioned power varies across a wide spectrum from explicit(such as education and
persuasion) and implicit ( the culture discreetly imposes the view of the right or proper action
over times (Galbraith,1983).

The are 3 sources of power ,namely personality ,property ,and organisation ,According to
Galbraith(1983),personality is traditionally associated with condign power ,anciently
individuals gained power by bein capable of inflicting physical harm on those who refused to
submit to their will ,Property obviously enough is associated with compensantory power
because there is money involved ,Orgainisation is principally associated with conditioned
power through ideology.(Galbraith ,1983) .

Key Features of the IEC

The Electoral Commission of South Africa was established following the 1994
elections to manage free and fair elections and ensure the participation of
citizens ,political parties ,and civil society in developing the country’s electoral
democracy , it was also established to conduct South Afica’s first fully democratic
 elections in 1994 .it is an independent ,impartial institution established by Chapter 9
of the Constitution to strengthen constitutional democy(IEC ,1996)

The IEC’S aim is to be a pre-eminent leader in electoral democracy ,its mission is to ensure
that the elections are free and fair through the participation of citizens ,political parties and
civil society and other ,the organisation subscribes to the following organisational values ,
such as impartiality,intergrity ,accountablity etc(IEC,1996).

The key actors involved are Mr .Sy Mamabolo who is the Chief Electoral Officer ,the current
commissioners are Adv Fdp Tlakula who is the chairperson ,Mr .IT Tselane who is the vice
chairperson ,Judge GM Makhanya ,REV BB Finca ,Ms .R Taljaard.
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Galbraith’s Instruments and Sources of power
The Electoral Commission of South Africa has access to Conditioned power which is
exrcised by changing belief ,persuasion ,education owr social commitment to what seems
natural ,proper ,or right ,which basically is ideology .it also has access to compensantory
power which wins submission by offering a reward of some kind (Galbraith,1983)
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The main Sources that the IEC has access to are Organisation ,it is the most important source
of power in modern societies “it is taken for granted that when an exercise of power is sought
or needed ,organisation is required”.Organisation commonly has access to all three forms of
power ,but it is mainly associated with conditioned power,(Galbtraith,1983).
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It some how has access to Personality through charisma or persuasion and personality is
described as any attribute that gives access to a form of power and it is most closely
associated with Conditioned power (Galbraith ,1983),which is is the instrument of power that
i think the IEC has acces to and uses everytime.
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The use of Instrument and Sources of power to support free and fair elections
The Electoral Commission of South Africa is using conditioned power by enforcing rules that
have to be followed by everyone without them being aware that the conditioned power is
exercised and also promotes ethical conduct whereby fairness andjustice is
encouraged ,theres is no discrimination allowed ,everybody is equal and must be treated with
respect and value diversity ,also safe guarding democratic processes which promotes
transparent elections which include voters to register to vote ,and also using conditioned
power to support free and fair elections by educating voters about what is the meaning of
democracy and how the election process goes.
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The IEC is using Compensantory power by maintaining instituional independence ensuring
that the organisation’s desired purposes are met or achieved by using money budgeted to that
the elections remain free and fair to every south african individual .
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Personality is used by the IEC through persuing people into thinking that it is a must to vote
and there were also threats such as if you’re unemployed you stand a chance of not getting a
job if the organisation recruiting notices on their system that you do not vote or one of those
Municipality contracts ,and also uses charisma they tend to capture some of the citizens by
smooth talking and drawing peoples attention in, and that keep peoples curious and which
cause the magnetic effect whereby people are now following because of the promises made ,
for example when the ANC promised the to build RDP houses ,it made a lot of people to vote
for the ANC because everyone likes some free stuff.
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CONCLUSION
In my opinion i do not think that the IEC has enough resources to ensure that the elections are
free and fair as it says , because a few years back there were news such as it has been
discovered that people votes were were stolen from some of the political party by the ANC
members ,some votes were found thrown in the dustbins which is not fair to the voters or
people that took their time to come and vote for whom they want to be represented by and the
IEC always encourages people to voice their opinions but still things like that occurs ..
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REFERENCES LIST
-John Kenneth Galbraith (1983).The Anotomy of power ,Boston:Houghton Mifflin .
-Https://www.com.elections .org.za./pw/About-us/Vision-Mission-Values .
-https://www.bing.com/search?
q=why+was+the+electoral+commission+of+south+africa+established &gs
- https.//www.bing .com .search?q=why+was+the+electorial+commission+of+south+africa
established &form =WSHBSH&qs=SW&cvid=46a0b0e500fe41.
-https://www,com/search?q=aim%20of%20the%20indipendent%20electoral%20commission
%20of%20south%20africa&shm=cr%form