WALLIS AJ [51] Section 15 does indeed provide a mechanism for lodging objections to the voters’ roll. The question is whether it is the only one. Importantly, it does not say that its use is exclusive. In order to lodge an objection, the objector first has to identify the voters who are wrongly registered, and serve notice of their objection on the people to whose registration they object.47 It is unclear how the applicants were supposed to comply with this requirement and the IEC does not suggest that it was practically feasible for them to do so. [52] To recapitulate, they received their free copies of their segments of the voters’ rolls on the afternoon of 4 December 2013 and the election was held on 11 December 2013. The copies they received contained no addresses. In order to lodge an objection under section 15, they had to identify from this unhelpful document the voters to whose registration they objected; formulate their objection and support it with documentary evidence;48 serve the objection on the voters concerned and then wait for up to fourteen days for the IEC to make a decision. 49 That would have taken them well past the election. To construe section 15 in the restrictive fashion suggested by the IEC might advance bureaucratic interests, but it is not consistent with its broader obligation to create an environment in which free and fair elections can take place in which all qualified citizens may participate either as candidates or voters. [53] Section 15 is simply not structured to deal with objections of the type that the applicants were making in sufficient time to enable by-elections to be held on a corrected voters’ roll. It may well provide a workable procedure for adoption by large and well-resourced political parties, who can monitor the roll throughout the year as voters are added to it or removed from it. They have their own records regarding voters and other means to enable them to cross-check against the voters’ roll any registration that they regard as doubtful. In addition, they are likely to have available 47 Section 15(2) of the Electoral Act. 48 Mr Kham’s objection in September 2013, on the basis of erroneous registrations and the bussing in of voters, was rejected on the grounds that he failed to produce supporting documents. 49 Section 15(3) of the Electoral Act. 29

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