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The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) began its national election awareness campaign this week ahead of the Local Government Elections happening on 4th November.
The campaign will roll out across TV, radio, social media and other digital channels in order to inform as many South Africans as possible of their right, and responsibility, to vote.
However, the elections are also prone to misinformation, even if the IEC is working hard to get accurate information out there.
“The Electoral Commission recognises that the pervasive use of social media is a double-edged sword. While it expands access to information, enhances participation, and broadens reach for political parties and candidates, it is also susceptible to manipulation and distortion, which may undermine information integrity – an indispensable component of a credible electoral process,” the commission said in a statement.
The IEC says that it will issue a draft Code of Conduct on Misinformation for public comment intended to include safeguards against misinformation during elections. What those safeguards entail is unclear at this stage but we will keep an eye out for that draft when it becomes available.
Previously the IEC has worked with civil society and leveraged platforms like Real411 to fight misinformation. It isn’t clear whether this will remain the case during these coming elections.
The commission and the country at large face an uphill battle in the fight against misinformation. Fake news has a tendency to spread like wildfire because it often elicits an emotional reaction. As we get closer to the elections, be sure to check and double check any information you read before sharing it. And to be clear, reading something on X or Facebook doesn’t mean it’s true.
Given AI’s pervasive nature, we’re not at all shocked to learn that locals will be able to chat to an AI bot trained by the IEC.
Vota is said to be a multichannel AI agent that can attend to queries, especially after hours. Where necessary though, the bot will escalate a query to a human. The IEC says the bot is currently trained to answer questions about voter registration but it will be updated continuously.
We aren’t seeing this chatbot on the IEC website and we haven’t been able to access the voter portal due to an error on the website. It’s a pity because we wanted to give it a test run. Should we find Vota we’ll be sure to give the tyres a good ol’ kick.
The commission also hosts a podcast that provides citizens with information from the IEC directly. You can find that on the IEC YouTube channel here.
The easiest way to register is online. So far this year, more than 376 000 South Africans have registered online and we’re sure that figure will increase.
We highly recommend bookmarking the IEC website on your browser of choice. It tends to be the most reliable source for information during an election period.
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