The Constitutional Court has dismissed the DA's application to declare the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC’s) reopening of its candidate nomination process for the upcoming local government elections as unlawful.
With just hours to go before the IEC closes its candidate nomination processes for the municipal poll, the top court said on Monday that the reopening of the candidate nomination process was “not unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid”.
The unanimous decision by the court found that its earlier judgment, which ordered the IEC to hold elections within the constitutionally mandated 90-day expiry term for municipal councils, envisaged an amendment to the initial IEC timetable, which gave parties until August 21 to submit candidates.
Political parties and independents now have until the evening of September 20 to submit their final candidates that will contest the elections on November 1.
“Extending the candidate cut-off date would best promote the fundamental right guaranteed to citizens in section 19(3)(b) of the constitution to stand for public office and to hold office if elected, read with the eligibility conferred by section 158(1) of the constitution on every citizen who is qualified to vote to be a member of a municipal council,” the judgment reads.
The DA had brought the application earlier in September after the Constitutional Court ordered the IEC hold elections in 2021. The DA, supported by the EFF, accused the IEC of reopening the candidate nomination processes to favour the ANC, which had failed to register all its candidates by the IEC’s initial deadline.
Given the urgency of the case, it was not heard via oral arguments and only papers were submitted. In its judgment, the court says the DA failed to persuade it that the extension of the candidate nomination process would be “unconstitutional and unlawful”.
“If, after the event, the DA or other political parties consider that the elections in particular municipalities were not free and fair because of alleged bias by the Commission in extending the candidate cut-off date, this judgment will not preclude such challenges,” the court says.
The IEC argued that it was well within its rights to reopen the processes “so that any person who registers and who wishes to contest the election may do so”.
The reopening of the IEC’s candidate nomination process was a lifeline to the ANC as the party’s late submission blunder placed it in a precarious position of possibly losing its status as the governing party across various municipal councils including Mangaung and Mbombela.
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