Mbombela - Nearly 50 different religious leaders in Mpumalanga will lead an interfaith prayer day on Saturday for "free and fair" local government elections on May 18.
The event, which will take place at the Nelspruit Rugby Stadium in Mbombela, is expected to attract more than 1 000 people.
"Over the past number of months, we have developed a strategic prayer strategy for the upcoming municipal elections.
"Our vision is to establish an effective and strategic prayer network across the province that will pray without bias or prejudice for God’s will, direction, and purpose to be accomplished during the elections," said provincial Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) spokesperson Sibusiso Nkosi on Wednesday.
Nkosi said the IEC opted for an interfaith prayer in order to accommodate different voices from different religious communities in the province.
He said religious leaders had a positive role to play in encouraging communities to participate peacefully in the elections, which will ensure that there are no disruptions or any violence.
"The most important fact we need to understand is that whatever the outcome of the elections, all our human hopes ultimately lie in God’s hands.
"So, we felt it was necessary to organise the prayer day to ask him to guide us," he said.
Nkosi said 11 gospel artists had been invited to entertain the crowd throughout the day.
