WALLIS AJ [76] The difficulty with this approach is that section 16(3) of the Electoral Act explicitly requires the IEC to provide a voters’ roll with the addresses of voters to all registered political parties contesting the election. It was wisely not suggested that political parties would be treated more favourably than independent or unaffiliated candidates. That would be a clear and unjustifiable breach of the constitutional right of such candidates to stand for public office in free and fair elections. The drafting of the section may have overlooked independent and unaffiliated candidates, but it must clearly be construed as referring to all candidates participating in an election. [77] The obligation to provide all candidates with a copy of the relevant segment of the voters’ roll containing the addresses of voters in the ward with their addresses (“where such addresses are available”) was ignored by the IEC in this case. That was a serious breach of its statutory obligations. Without voters’ addresses the ability of candidates to canvass voters is significantly impaired. In these wards, in addition to residences of a conventional type as reflected on the plans and photographs, where street names or numbers and house numbers should be available, there are areas of informal settlement. Candidates given a voters’ roll that merely reflects names and ID numbers are faced with an enormous task in trying to identify which residents are registered to vote. Even in areas where there are formal dwellings many of the residents may not have telephones and be capable of identification by reference to the telephone directory. The ubiquitous mobile phone is not to be found in conventional directories. How then does a candidate convert the list of names into identifiable voters who they will want to contact and persuade to give them their votes? [78] These difficulties would have been compounded by the fact that the candidates in the December by-elections were only provided with copies of the segments of the voters’ roll applying to their wards on 4 December 2013, a mere seven days prior to the election. Section 11(1)(a) of the Municipal Electoral Act required the IEC to prepare an election timetable and, in the absence of any change to that timetable, it 40