Opposition political parties have threatened legal action over the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC’s) decision to reopen the candidate registration process, saying the move smacked of “political bias” and was aimed at benefiting the embattled ANC.
The DA and the IFP said on Monday they had briefed their lawyers to explore “all available legal avenues” to oppose the IEC’s decision, which came days after the Constitutional Court ruled that the local government election must take place between October 27 and November 1 and that the voters’ roll should be reopened.
IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the reopening of the candidate registration process “clearly shows that [the IEC] are operating with political bias. The interpretation of the judgment by the IEC is not legal but political.”
IEC chair Glen Mashinini said in a media briefing that a meeting of the party liaison committee (PLC) was held earlier on Monday, explaining that it was clear from the proceedings that there were different interpretations among the political parties about whether the Constitutional Court’s order permitted the IEC to reopen the candidate nomination process.
The PLC is a platform for registered political parties and the IEC to consult and co-operate on all electoral matters aimed at delivering free and fair elections.
Mashinini said the IEC had taken advice on the Constitutional Court’s order and “the commission is of the view that amending the timetable to reopen nomination is reasonably necessary in the circumstances”.
He said the majority of the political parties in the PLC provided “sufficient consensus to enable us to move forward”.
Hlengwa said: “We are vehemently opposed to their stance in granting the ANC a second chance when back in 2011 the IFP was not granted the same, nor were there any favours done for the NFP in 2016.”
He said the independence, credibility and integrity of the IEC “is now in question”.
The IEC had approached the apex court seeking an order to declare that holding elections beyond the five-year expiry term of municipal councils was constitutional. This followed a report by former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke which found that under Covid-19 conditions the municipal elections would not be free and fair if they were held in October.
On Friday, the apex court ordered that the elections be held between October 27 and November 1, as mandated by the constitution. It is yet to provide reasons for its ruling.
The IEC’s decision to reopen the candidate nomination process effectively gave the ANC a lifeline as the governing party failed to register candidates in 94 municipalities across the country, including in big metros such as Tshwane and Mangaung.
The DA said in a statement that the IEC’s decision gives the ANC an “advantage that other parties have never enjoyed”.
“This has never been granted before when other parties have requested leeway on an IEC deadline, resulting in the NFP’s [National Freedom Party] total exclusion from the 2016 local election and the IFP’s partial exclusion from certain wards in the 2011 election,” the DA pointed out.
“It is a transparent strategy to benefit the ANC and would go some way to explaining why the ANC withdrew its appeal to the Electoral Court to have the candidate registration deadline lifted. Why would they have done that if they did not have a fallback position. Now their ‘Plan B’ has been revealed.”
The DA said it would not hesitate to fight the IEC and the ANC in their “blatant attempts to manipulate our constitution and our electoral processes”.
ACDP president Kenneth Meshoe said: “We are not happy that the ANC has been given a lifeline. This means the people will continue to experience service delivery failures in those municipalities run by the ANC.”
EFF spokesperson Vuyani Pambo could not be reached for comment.
Speaking at the close of the ANC’s national executive committee midyear lekgotla on Monday, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed the IEC’s decision, which he characterised as the “right thing to do in order to deepen democracy”.
Stellenbosch University political analyst Prof Amanda Gouws said the ANC was a “party in disarray” as it had failed to give guidance to its structures during the candidate nomination process, while Wits University political analyst Prof Susan Booysen described it as a “shadow of its former self”.
Another political analyst, Dr Ralph Mathekga, accused the ANC of wanting to benefit from its “own inefficiency”, saying it became “overconfident that the Constitutional Court will find it impractical to hold elections in October”, which was not the case.
mkentanel@businesslive.co.za
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.