The Independent Electoral Commission will pay particular attention to its credibility and independence in the 2009 elections, following developments in the recent Kenyan and Zimbabwean polls, the IEC said on Wednesday.

"One of the key strategies is to consolidate the credibility and independence of the institution," said Gauteng provincial electoral officer Sy Mamabolo.

"This comes as recent events of our neighbours, Kenya, certainly Zimbabwe, point to... [the fact that] if you don't secure the independence of the commission, you may be facing problems," said Mamabolo.

Speaking at a conference aimed at getting the SA Council of Churches to help increase voter turnout, IEC deputy chairperson Thoko Mpumlwana said the IEC did not want the world to watch an election on the African continent and think "there they go again".

IEC want over-70-percent turnout

"We want to ensure and retain the credibility we have."

It was important that parties "win with integrity and lose with integrity", in what was bound to be a "tense" election, she said.

The IEC was aiming for an over-70-percent turnout.

"Our democracy is too young to elect our leaders with a poor turnout. We would not want our leaders to be elected with a margin of 30 percent, it reduces our democracy."

Nationally, there are about 20-million people registered to vote, with Gauteng alone aiming to add another 500 000 names to the current 4.5-million registered in that province, said Mamabolo.

However, there were concerns about the six percent decline in youth registration, and plans were underway in Gauteng to have the electoral process included in the Gauteng Education Department's Life Skills curriculum as the majority of young people were in schooling.

Mentioning that men also had to be encouraged to register, as they were outnumbered by women on the roll, Mamabolo sparked a lengthy debate from men at the conference demanding to know why they were excluded from gender workshops.

Concern for men

"We are concerned that men are not being recognised for the role they play in society," said Reverend Theunis Botha of the Christian Democratic Alliance.

Mamabolo said men were welcome to attend these workshops, although Mpumlwana added that one of the aims of the workshops was to get women living in a patriarchal society who were ordered to vote in a particular way to realise that their vote was secret.

This applied to youths who were also influenced to vote in a particular way by their families.

SA Council of Churches president Tinyiko Maluleke said the election, which has to be held between 14 April and 14 July in terms of the Constitution, will be as significant as the 1994 elections which introduced the first democratically elected government.

"The SA voter is now a little more politically savvy than they were in 1994. The mist of the honeymoon has gone and I think that the voter is going to be a little more difficult to entice and to deceive," Maluleke said on the fringes of the conference.

"People have been through the arms deal, ruptures in the ruling party, they have been through corruption issues, and are somewhere between scepticism and hope."

Maluleke saw election queues as "queues of hope", believing the church's challenge was to make sure people did not opt for non-participation as a means of sending a message.

Elections were not merely about ballot boxes, but about finding voices which would be in solidarity with the poor, he said.

Church to work with IEC?

"That for me is why we as churches are willing to join up with this project of getting electoral democracy to work in this country."

He envisaged parishioners and church groups volunteering to work with the IEC in registration drives, but added that the pulpit would not be open for this.

"The pulpit is used for a specific message," he said.

Regional voter registration drives will start in September, with national drives held on 8 and 9 November and the second on 7 and 8 February 2008.

Similar conferences with other faiths are also being planned.

Sapa