As the voter registration weekend for the municipal elections approaches, political parties remain divided on the recommendation to postpone local government elections in October because of the coronavirus pandemic.
An inquiry, headed by retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, recommended that the municipal elections be postponed to February 2022, mainly due to health risks posed by the pandemic and the restrictions placed on political gatherings.
The ball is now in the court of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to determine whether it will implement the non-binding Moseneke report. Voter registration has been rescheduled for the July 31 and August 1.
Political parties would have only a week to mobilise new voters to register to vote and for existing voters to check and, where necessary, update their registration details, should the voter registration weekend go ahead.
Business Day understands that the ANC’s top brass met on Wednesday to discuss the Moseneke report and the affect it would have on the party’s preparations for the local government elections. The party, along with the DA, told the Moseneke inquiry of its support for the municipal elections in October.
DA national spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube said: “It is not essential to have mass gatherings and marches in order to hold free and fair elections. It is these events that give rise to the risk of Covid-19 transmission, not the holding of elections themselves.”
The EFF, which had called for the postponement of the polls, says it will propose an emergency convening of parliament to pass an “urgent motion to amend the constitution to allow for the postponement of elections beyond the established five-year term of municipal councils, and beyond the 90-day deadline that would require elections to sit in November 2021”.
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos said that the only foolproof way to legally postpone the local government elections, scheduled for October 27, and extend the authority of municipal councils after November 2021, “is to amend the constitution”.
“To amend the constitution is quite a lengthy process, there are all kinds of considerations that must be adhered to. It’s complicated,” he said. “It will take about three months to amend the constitution. It’s not really possible [to do so] in less than three months.”
De Vos said the alternative is to go to court for an order that some constitutional provisions should not apply due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “That would be an extraordinary thing for the court to decide on and if that route is chosen there is no guarantee that the court will agree to it. Going to court is very risky.”
Elmien du Plessis, a law professor at the North West University, noted that Moseneke pointed out in the report that in terms of the constitution elections have to be held every five years.
“If they [political parties] want to extend that, they will have to go to parliament to ask for an amendment to the constitution. The problem, as he [Moseneke] pointed out, is that it might require a 75% majority because it touches on a fundamental value in section 1 [of the constitution],” said Du Plessis.
The other suggestion was to go to Constitutional Court to extend the date of the municipal councils to a “finite date [February 2022] because of the exceptional circumstances that Covid-19 created. This is, however, dangerous, as you are asking the court to change the constitution”.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.