Elections without ANC would be ‘disastrous’, says political expert

Serious disaster is awaiting South Africa should the governing ANC be unable to contest the October local government elections in some wards and irate voters could spoil their ballots and render the process a damp squib.

Political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga said the ANC was a dominant party in South African politics and could not be left out of the crucial polls.

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“Let’s be honest, the ANC has the majority of voters and there will be a crisis in the elections. Honestly, as South Africans, given the current conditions of [a possible] postponement, you would not want to have the elections with the ANC not represented in 93 wards. That is a disaster in my mind,” he said.

“Whether you like the ANC or not, the reality is that it is a dominant party; we are going to see many spoilt ballots; you are going to see a disastrous election.”

Mathekga maintained that the ANC’s failure to register its candidates in 93 wards was not a simple issue and could not be compared to the matter in which the National Freedom Party (NFP) failed to pay its registration fee that would have enabled it to contest the 2016 local government elections.

The NFP paid a huge price when it was disqualified by the IEC and lost an appeal in the Electoral Court.

“There is no doubt, in my view, that the ANC is inept and has got serious internal challenges, but we must look at the possibility that the Constitutional Court could rule in favour of postponing the elections,” said Mathekga.

“In that case, once the elections are postponed, new campaigns and new timelines would be set, including the IEC’s weekend registration process, and parties would be allowed to redo the candidate registration.”

He said the ANC depended a lot on the fact that it was in government and did not see the sense of urgency to submit its candidates list on time.

“I am not sympathetic to the ANC. I’m just sympathetic to the voters and the understanding of the reality on the ground that you will have a serious legitimacy crisis,” he said.

“It’s just that the ANC has acted in a way that it is pre-empting the decision of the ConCourt.

“They seem to be sure the court will postpone the elections, something that would give it time to catch up and correct its mistakes.

“Be the reality is that you cannot go ahead and have elections under these circumstances. We are not going to have elections in October. That’s a fact, as it appears to me. They are going to postpone and certainly the registration would have to be reopened,” said Mathekga.