AfriGIS maps elections

Johannesburg, 04 May 2009

Location-based services company AfriGIS continued its support of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) during the 2009 elections by providing GIS services, mapping software and a number of datasets to the IEC.

AfriGIS has been supporting the IEC since 1998. Magnus Rademeyer, AfriGIS MD, says the accurate positioning of voting stations within voting districts was an important factor in ensuring the voting process proceeded smoothly on election day.

“Voting districts and stations were determined in accordance with provisions set out in the Electoral Act and focused on allowing the optimum number of voters unimpeded access to vote.

Since 2004, the voters' roll has grown by 2.5 million to 23.1 million and the IEC's challenge was to analyse and amend voting districts and stations where necessary,” he says.

According to Rademeyer, many new housing developments have been built in recent years which created the need for new districts or the repositioning of voting stations.

AfriGIS director, Charl Fouche, says despite minor challenges in certain polling stations, overall, the voting process was a success: “We support the IEC with the implementation of the voting distributing strategy. The challenge for the IEC is to make sure that every citizen has the opportunity to go to a voting station for free and fair elections. Currently the IEC deals with almost 20 000 voting stations across the country.

“The GIS team, made up of AfriGIS and IEC staff, takes the population dynamics, geographic area, road network, and developments to determine the position of voting stations. We are already planning for the next election, making sure that the data is correct and updating information received from this year's election.”

In the lead-up to the elections, the IEC mapped the amendments and distributed approximately 165 000 maps of various sizes on each registration weekend and a further 80 000 maps on election day.

During the registration weekend in February, more the 161 000 individuals used the IEC's Web mapping application to verify their voting station details. A different version of the application was used at the IEC call centre by agents to answer voters' location-related questions.