 In December 1993 he was appointed Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission whose task it was to deliver South Africa's first elections based on universal adult suffrage.On 10 March 1994, president Lucas Mangope took a hardline stance, rejecting Judge Johann Kriegler's plea for free political activity in the homeland, and firing the staff of the Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation, closing down two television stations and three radio stations.In 1999 after months of fighting over the way South Africa's second post-apartheid election should be run, Kriegler resigned.