Chart of the Week

After some issues with voting stations across South Africa on 29 May, concerns were raised about the funding of South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), says Cirrus Capital chief economist Robert McGregor.

In South Africa, the Treasury allocates a base level to the IEC every year, with relatively minor adjustments over the years. Where the Treasury’s transfers to the IEC are less than the IEC’s expenses for that year (like a non-election year), the IEC records and holds onto the surplus.

In years with more expenditure, such as election years, the IEC can then draw down on these historic surpluses to meet its needs. For the elections on 29 May, the IEC had a historic surplus of around R1.5 billion which it could draw down on, indicating that the challenges faced at voting stations on 29 May are not due to ‘underfunding’ of the IEC.

Namibia takes a different approach to funding the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN).

During non-election years, a base amount is provided for the day-to-day operations of the ECN. During election years, the ministry of finance and public enterprises increases funding to the ECN, as can be seen for 2019/20 and 2020/21, and in the projections for 2024/25 and 2025/26.

The large allocation to the ECN for 2023/24 was in anticipation for the general registration of voters and later supplementary registration of voters efforts, but these were subsequently amended for the extended voter registration period to take place from June 2024.

As a result, the allocation to the ECN in 2023/24 should be carried over into 2024/25 for both voter registration and conducting of the elections anticipated in November 2024.