African Activist Archive

The press release says that, on January 13, the multi-party council overseeing South Africa's transition to majority rule appointed Gay J. McDougall, an American lawyer, to the newly constituted Independent Electoral Commission, the body charged with running that country's first non-racial, universal franchise elections. The press release says the Independent Electoral Commission will be responsible for administering and monitoring the election and certifying whether the election is free and fair. The elections, to be held on April 27, will trigger South Africa's passage from an apartheid state to one governed by non-racial democratic principles. McDougall has been Director of the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights Under Law since 1980. The press release says McDougall is an international lawyer and expert on issues concerning the protection of human rights. McDougall's expertise enabled the Committee to play a useful role in critiquing and giving international attention to the deficiencies in the election law that was first proposed by the South African government for Namibia. Once South Africa created an acceptable election law, McDougall dispatched a monitoring team to Namibia eight months before the November 1989 elections to ensure against continued human rights violations and to monitor elections and expose voting fraud. Eve Thompson is the contact person on the press release.

African Activist Archive

GAY MCDOUGALL APPOINTED TO SOUTH AFRICA'S INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION

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