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Unregistered parties seek fresh election twist with ConCourt appeals
New political parties who failed to register with the IEC on time will appear before the Constitutional Court this week to seek a reprieve
Picture: Nigel Sibanda / The Citizen
Several fledgling political parties will this week take their battle to get on this month’s election ballot to the Constitutional Court.
The parties have been excluded from the vote by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) after their registrations were deemed invalid or incomplete.
They claimed the IEC’s registration portal was bogged down with system errors that prevented them from adequately fulfilling the registration requirements.
As of the March 8 deadline, 101 new parties had signalled their intentions to register with the IEC via their online portal, but only 38 of those applications were successful.
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Five of those parties lodged an appeal at the Electoral Court in April and on the 19th of that month after the IEC ruled their appeal had failed.
These parties included Operation Dudula, Cape Independence Party and Defenders of the People.
Three electoral candidates from The Labour Party, the African Congress for Transformation and the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats will reportedly now appear before the Constitutional Court on Wednesday.
Unregistered parties appealing for a second chance
The IEC claims the parties only have themselves to blame, but the Labour Party’s Kirster Janse van Rensburg outlined the reasons why their appeal should be considered.
According to Maroela Media, Janse van Rensburg argued the IEC’s portal would not allow them to upload information before the March 8 deadline. She added that the abrupt announcement of the election date by President Ramaphosa created a truncated administrative window.
She also believes some parties received preferential treatment.
New election date wanted for ‘prejudiced’ voters
Daily Maverick said Janse van Rensburg wants President Ramaphosa to declare a new election date.
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Believing voters have had their rights infringed upon, she argued: “The relief sought by the Labour Party will ensure that rather than disenfranchising citizens of this country, the national and provincial elections will still be held, albeit on another date.”
