Culled from The Observer


Thursday, November 1, 2001


IEC Code of Campaign Conduct for Referendum

As preparations gain momentum for the up-coming referendum slated for
November 13, the Independent Electoral Commission has outlined the code of
campaign conduct for political parties.

Speaking to our reporter Monday at his office, the Independent Electoral
Commission’s (IEC) communications officer, Mr Said Usuf, noted the
referendum was not a politically partisan issue but that it only dealt with
the laws of the country and "by the nature of all the political parties,
they would have interest and they would also have different interpretations
of the wording of the laws of the land.

Therefore, they are free to go out and educate their people on the
provisions of the Amendment Bill but it cannot take the form of campaigning
as in the Presidential election," Usuf emphasised. He said this was
necessary in order to enable everybody to understand and to make their own
informed decisions before the referendum day.

Mr Usuf also said even the IEC would conduct a series of programmes on the
TV and the radio to sensitive people on the referendum "because a good
number of the population would not be able to read and interprete the laws
by themselves or understand what the amendment would mean to them in the
long term. So all the political parties are free to come out and educate the
people as part of their role as political parties". He said that was their
constitutional mandate.

Mr Usuf further asserted that the IEC would also inform people during its
sensitisation programme on all the sections of the constitution affected by
the referendum . The IEC communications officer also revealed to our
reporter that in the up-coming referendum, ballot boxes may not be black and
white simply because there was a political party whose party colour was
white. "So the IEC was conscious of this colour implications because it did
not want to mislead anybody. He said the IEC would come up with a decision
as soon as possible on the colours of the ballot boxes, adding that the the
tokens would remain the same.






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