1.     Management & Facilitation of SRC Elections using Technology by 20 June 2015          

2. About Us The Elexions Agency (Agency) was founded in October 2007 .
The deluge of requests – growth of company.
Its founding members not new to elections.
Collective and cumulative experience spans more than 40 years.
Individually, the founding members are highly accomplished within the field of electoral democracy.

3. Experience & Expertise
Bontle Mpakanyane
Formerly with the Independent Mediation Services of South Africa (IMSSA),
After IMSSA, Bontle Mpakanyane together with Dren Nupen instrumental in the establishment of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) where she spent almost 4 years as its Elections and Balloting Management Specialist.
Consulted for South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the conflict management panels during the national elections. In between,
At both IMSSA & EISA participated in facilitation of the election of office bearers for the ANC since its unbanning in 1991 and presided on numerous since 1997 in Mafikeng, Stellenbosch, Polokwane & Mangaung; the PAC national office bearers elections, the then Democratic Party List elections in the 90s and their referendum to test the Metro concept in Gauteng, COSATU and its affiliates, NACTU and some of its affiliates & Student Body elections.
Presided over Pick n Pay, De Beers, Standard Bank Superannuation, Anglo Platinum, Rand Water, Eskom, Edcon provident / pension funds
Presided over GEMS, Polmed, Sizwe, and currently Hosmed.

4. Critical Imperatives for Elections
Geographical, functional and descriptive representation: The latter refers to the general idea that, the elected body should, to a certain degree “mirror the membership” of a given organization. In its broadest sense this concept includes race, gender, age groups etc.
Making Elections Accessible and Meaningful: This criterion relates closely to the voting methodology. Ease of voting includes such detail as the complexity of the ballot paper design and the ease of accessing the voting stations using innovative e-voting mechanisms and methodologies.

5. Contracting
Bound by Service Level Agreement

6. Election Process Design
Process broken into three phases viz.:
Phase 1:
Marketing, Communication & Awareness
Nominations
Verification, Audit & Vetting
Publication & Objections
Adjudication
Final Publication of Candidates
Phase 2:
Voting
Preceded by Circuses & Campaigning
Phase 3:
Counting
Verification, Validation, Internal & External Audit
Results & Declaration

7. e-Voting Technologies
Electronic Voter Registration Processes
Easy Access for students strewn across various campuses & departments using Student Cards and/or IDs
Registration for multiple votes for
Local SRC
SRC
Paper Based Voting / Electronic Voting
Electronic Vote Counting System:
Coding of different levels of voting thereby allowing counting to be stream based eg. LSRC and for SRC whereby categorisation of votes fall within the correct stream

8. e-Voting Innovation
‘Short Message System’ (SMS) or ‘text messaging’ entails members casting their votes via SMS / USSD / website using electronic devices and postal info for publication of candidate lists and allocation of unique number to per candidate.

9. Advantages & Disadvantages
Most people have cellphones, smartphones, laptops, phablets & tablets
e-Voting is potentially highly convenient to most voters
Voting is at a touch of a button- time-saving
Cost effective
Disadvantages:
M-Net Idols sms voting debacle
Members have to ensure their numbers are uploaded and personal details updated with the Scheme at all times
Administrator has to at all times update data
Unless above is done regularly, it might render the process inaccessible.

10. Hybrid Voting No single method is without weakness.
Selection should rank the methods iro relative strengths and weaknesses
A decision on which weaknesses are worth risking.
It may be preferable to adopt a combination of methods rather than a single method.
The best combination is one where the relative strengths of the different methods far outweigh the relative weaknesses.

11. Costs COST IMPLICATIONS OF INTRODUCING NEW VOTING METHODS
Administrative costs of running elections are a major factor in the credibility of elections in general and SRC elections are no exception.
The Agency cost-effective

12. Competition

13. Questions

14. Thank You
Bontle Mpakanyane (Ms)
Executive Director
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