During an election period, the media plays a critical role in disseminating information to the electorate in order to facilitate informed decision-making when citizens exercise their vote at the election polls. As such, it is important then that the media demonstrates not only fairness and impartiality, but also highlight issues that affect South African citizens’ lives and futures, including but not limited to poverty, unemployment and inequality as well as gender-based violence to name a few. Furthermore, covering what citizens need to know encourages informed choices and effective voting through reporting on parties and candidates, informing the public where they stand on key political issues. MMA has monitored the coverage of every democratic election in South Africa since 1994. MMA has also monitored the elections coverage of other countries, such as Lesotho and Zambia. You can find our reports and analyses of various elections coverage below.