REFILWE MEKOA
Free State political parties pledged to abide by the Independent Electoral Commission’s code of conduct towards the election date, within 61 days left before the upcoming general elections.
The IEC’s Provincial Executive Officer Chris Mepha emphasised that days are gone when political parties were restricted to campaign in certain areas. He was addressing various stakeholders and 13 political parties this morning in Bloemfontein.
Mepha labelled the election period as a celebratory time where political parties are expected to campaign peacefully though their emotions might be accelerating.
“We expect that all political parties to observe the code when they do their campaigns in their respective areas. As electoral commission we do not expect to hear that there is a certain political party that is denied access at a certain area. There shouldn’t be any restrictions to any political party and we urge every political party to respect each other as they do their work,” he says.
Mepha says only the NFP, UDM, AZAPO and PAC didn’t arrive for the pledging out of the 17 parties they expected. He says he was happy to see more female political leaders emerging.
