The Independent Electoral Commission will run next year's election on a shoestring budget after national treasury approved a budget that is R300m less than that of the previous general elections.
As a result, the commission will have one registration drive in January instead of two as had been originally planned.
The commission confirmed the total cost of the election next year is projected to be R1.2bn.
The commission asked treasury for money, but the constrained fiscus means it has to tighten its belt.
The elections are funded from R550m from this year's budget, and R650m from the allocation to the commission next year.
This is based on the commission expecting the polls to take place in May next year.
This combined figure of R1.2bn is less than the budget for the 2014 general election, which cost taxpayers just over R1.5bn.
"The fiscus is constrained; there is only so much cake for the whole country," chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo told Sowetan.
He said when the commission's request to treasury for more money was turned down, it decided to adjust its plans for the sixth general election of the democratic era.
"Had we had more money, perhaps we would have created another registration opportunity. Instead of having one registration weekend in January, we would have chosen to have another one," Mamabolo said.
"To the extent that we don't have every cent we requested, we adjusted our plans accordingly, and we are working on the basis of the available budget."
The commission has spent more than R400m of its election budget on a registration drive in March this year.
The registration weekend due to take place next year is expected to be used to gather the addresses of registered voters, after the Constitutional Court ruled that the commission had to have the addresses of voters.
The addresses of just under 1.6 million registered voters have not yet been captured.
Mamabolo said going into the last phase of election planning, the commission's focus is to ensure that vote-counting processes are reliable .
"You can run a voting process as well as you wish, but if your counting procedures are flawed, or there are problems with your counting procedures, the will of the people as expressed in the ballot could potentially not find its way into the result of the elections."
Mamabolo also raised concern with election-related violence and called for restraint.
Treasury cuts IEC's budget
The Independent Electoral Commission will run next year's election on a shoestring budget after national treasury approved a budget that is R300m less than that of the previous general elections.
As a result, the commission will have one registration drive in January instead of two as had been originally planned.
The commission confirmed the total cost of the election next year is projected to be R1.2bn.
The commission asked treasury for money, but the constrained fiscus means it has to tighten its belt.
The elections are funded from R550m from this year's budget, and R650m from the allocation to the commission next year.
This is based on the commission expecting the polls to take place in May next year.
This combined figure of R1.2bn is less than the budget for the 2014 general election, which cost taxpayers just over R1.5bn.
"The fiscus is constrained; there is only so much cake for the whole country," chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo told Sowetan.
He said when the commission's request to treasury for more money was turned down, it decided to adjust its plans for the sixth general election of the democratic era.
"Had we had more money, perhaps we would have created another registration opportunity. Instead of having one registration weekend in January, we would have chosen to have another one," Mamabolo said.
"To the extent that we don't have every cent we requested, we adjusted our plans accordingly, and we are working on the basis of the available budget."
The commission has spent more than R400m of its election budget on a registration drive in March this year.
The registration weekend due to take place next year is expected to be used to gather the addresses of registered voters, after the Constitutional Court ruled that the commission had to have the addresses of voters.
The addresses of just under 1.6 million registered voters have not yet been captured.
Mamabolo said going into the last phase of election planning, the commission's focus is to ensure that vote-counting processes are reliable .
"You can run a voting process as well as you wish, but if your counting procedures are flawed, or there are problems with your counting procedures, the will of the people as expressed in the ballot could potentially not find its way into the result of the elections."
Mamabolo also raised concern with election-related violence and called for restraint.
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