KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Elections
South Africa
April 2009

ACCORD, in association with NPI-Africa & WANEP

Background

Political violence in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has claimed the lives of as many as 20,000 people since 1984. More than half of these deaths occurred after 1990, that is after the unbanning of liberation movements.

On 24 and 25 February 2009, ACCORD hosted H.E. Dr. Salim Salim, the former Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union). Dr. Salim was in South Africa to gather information on the process leading up to the April 2009 South African elections for the African Union.

ACCORD’s Elections Programme will host a three day capacity building workshop for electoral stakeholders in Luanda, from 7-9 June 2006. Approximately 35 electoral stakeholders from government, civil society and the media will be sensitized on their roles and responsibilities in preparation for the elections – with special emphasis on the management of election-related conflicts.

Ms. ‘Kemi Ogunsanya, with the Elections and Conflict Management Programme at ACCORD, attended the Electoral Code of Conduct and Peace Pledge signing Ceremony of Municipal Electoral Officers (MEOs) and political parties contesting the Local Government Elections in the Province of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

On 24 March 2009 ACCORD Senior Advisor Tor Sellstrom and Shauna Mottiar, a Senior Researcher at ACCORD, attended the Democracy Development Programme’s political party debate which was held at the Elangeni Hotel in Durban, South Africa. Seven South African political parties, who will participate in the upcoming elections to be held in South Africa on 22 April 2009, were represented on the panel.

ACCORD’s Kemi Ogunsanya will present a paper on ‘Mitigating Election-Related Conflicts in the SADC region’ at an elections observation training workshop for SADC Members of Parliaments.

ACCORD’s Managing African Conflict in Southern Africa (MAC IQC) Programme is presently undertaking a series of consultation meetings with electoral stakeholders in Angola, from March 14-18. Mr. Kwezi Mngqibisa, an ACCORD Senior Manager, is leading the consultations with Ms. Joyce Titi Pitso, an Elections Consultant attached to the programme.