DA loses court bid to stop reopening of election candidates registration

The local government elections candidates registration has been reopened as the Constitutional Court on Monday dismissed an application opposing the move. The DA filed an urgent application to the court on September 7, requesting that the reopening of the candidate registration by the Independent Electoral Commission be ruled unconstitutional and invalid.

The party proposed for the judgement to be handed down before Monday, September 20, which is the possible date for the proclamation of the election date. The consequence of the proclamation will lead to the amendment of the electoral timetable and the commission indicated that it would reopen the candidate registration the very same day. There was no oral hearing by the court and an order given by the court on Monday morning dismissed the application by the DA.

The following order was made:

“1. The third intervening party’s (DA’s application) prayer for direct access on an urgent basis is granted.

“2. Save as aforesaid, the third intervening party’s (DA) application is dismissed.”

The judgement read: ” This judgment does not detract from the importance of adherence to deadlines imposed by election timetables. Our decision is concerned with the Commission’s power to amend timetables in terms of section 11(2). When that power is lawfully exercised, it inevitably changes the deadlines, in which event there must be compliance with the amended deadlines. Self-evidently, it would be improper for the Commission to exercise its power of amendment in order to favour one particular party, but on the papers we cannot find that the Commission’s proposed amendment will be vitiated on this basis. “

“The DA’s application was not without merit. On the issue whether the candidate extension is a “reasonably necessary” amendment as contemplated in the order, the DA, IFP and EFF were right, and the opponents of the DA, as well as FUL (Freedom Under Law) , were wrong. Given the desirability of a prompt resolution, the balance, when assessing the interests of justice, comes down in favour of allowing direct access on an urgent basis. However, and for reasons explained, the DA’s application must fail on the merits.”

This will see the commission going ahead with the registration as intended.

The commission following the judgement announced that political parties and independent candidates intending to contest the local government elections scheduled for 01 November 2021 have until Tuesday to submit their nominations. In terms of the election timetable, the cut-off date is Tuesday, September 21 at 17h00.

The commission’s legal team led by advocate Steven Budlender in an answering affidavit filed last week to the court, stated that unless the court ruled otherwise, it would proceed with the reopening of the registration.

“The minister (Cogta) has publicly stated that when she issues her new election proclamation on September 20, she will set the election date for November 1. But once that occurs, the commission will not need to rely on this court’s order to empower it to amend the electoral timetable. “It will have a statutory power to do so,” the papers read.

The commission argued that the municipal electoral act empowers them to amend the electoral timetable. “There is no basis to contend that this court’s order “strips” the commission of that statutory power,” the papers read.

Earlier this month, the court dismissed the commission’s application to have elections held next year. The court ordered that the elections be held this year and that the commission could hold a registration weekend and amend the time-table if it deemed it “reasonable” to do so.

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The commission argued that it could not only open the voter registration and not for candidates (registration), as it believed it would be holding a free and fair elections for all.

“Voting in an election and standing for public office in that election are both rights guaranteed by section 19(3) of the constitution, which provides: “Every adult citizen has the right— (a) to vote in elections for any legislative body established in terms of the constitution, and to do so in secret; and (b) to stand for public office and, if elected, to hold office.”

DA national party committee member Werner Horn launched an application to ask the court to set aside the decision made by the commission to reopen the registration of candidates to contest the local municipal elections.

“There needs to be certainty on who the candidates are. That is vital to allow candidates and parties to campaign, voters to decide who to support, and for the commission to prepare millions of ballots.” He said the commission was exceeding the mandate given by the court to reopen the voters’ roll. “It has sought to use the necessary reopening of the voters’ roll to justify allowing parties who failed to comply with an electoral deadline, a lifeline.”

Amongst political parties and independent candidates which missed the deadline for registration of candidates was the ANC.

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