There are only bad and worse options when it comes to the municipal elections scheduled for October, says constitutional law expert Prof Pierre de Vos.

The inquiry to determine if free and fair elections could be conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, led by former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke and established by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), released its final report yesterday (July 20).

WATCH: Journalist Izak du Plessis chats to constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos.

The report concluded that it is ‘not reasonably possible or likely that the local government elections scheduled for the month of October 2021 will be held in a free and fair manner, as required by the peremptory provisions of the Constitution and related legislation’.

A recommendation was made that the elections be postponed to February. De Vos says that whatever action is taken, something will have to give. He says that even if the elections are postponed, there is no guarantee that this will make them free and fair come February.

Various political parties had earlier in the year called for the postponement of the elections. The IEC will now urgently study the report and its recommendations.

As part of this process, it will consult key stakeholders, including political parties, and various state role-players. De Vos says that if it is not possible to hold free and fair elections, postponement will be justified. However, he says, there will be serious consequences for the Constitution.

“If the election is only going to be more difficult, and not as perfect as we want it to be, I don’t think that is a good enough reason to make this exception [to the Constitutional requirement that the elections are held within 90 days of the date of expiry of the term of municipal councils],” he added.

The IEC has previously explained that because the last general local government elections took place on August 3, 2016, the current term of all municipal councils expire on August 3, and the elections will have to be held by November 1 to elect new municipal councils.

“The biggest problem is that we don’t know how the pandemic will influence us by the end of the year,” says De Vos. The Electoral Commission says it is currently in consultations, and will provide feedback on the way forward once the process is finalised.

Find updated information on the IEC’s website.

Also see: Are your voting details up to date?

WATCH: Journalist Izak du Plessis chats to Abrahams about the elections, the registration weekend, Covid-19 and online registration. Note that the IEC has since postponed the municipal voting registration weekend with two weeks to July 31-August 1.