ANC Far North Region lashes out at IEC
Party approaches lawyers as IEC says by-election registration fee is unpaid
THE ANC in the Far North Region has approached its lawyers as it accuses the local IEC branch of being ‘at fault’ as the party will not be added to the ballot for the upcoming Ward 9 by-election.
The ward was held by the ANC until Councillor LJ Zikhala left the position to take up a managerial post at Mtubatuba Municipality.
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ANC Far North Region Secretary Verus Ngcamphalala dismissed as untrue rumours that the party had failed to pay the IEC registration to contest the by-election.
“Everything was done in time by our administration. The IEC came back [to us] two weeks later and said there was a mix-up with account numbers when the payment was made,” said Ngcamphalala.
He added that when the payment was made by the ANC, the IEC had confirmed that everything was in order.
“The matter is with our lawyers because it’s [the IEC that is] at fault. We are challenging the decision by the IEC to exclude us from the ballot,” he said.
The ANC regional secretary said the party is confident that it will retain the ward ‘notwithstanding the current’ challenge with the IEC.
He said it has fielded Vivian Mfeka as its candidate, a school teacher whom he said is a ‘well-known community member who was elected by the community itself to be the candidate’.
In response, IEC regional manager Khanyi Khanyile said the ANC did not qualify to contest the by-election because the party did not meet the requirements to do so as it did not pay the registration fee.
“The ANC submitted its documents [to contest elections] on time with a deposit slip, and they phoned the next day to confirm whether the IEC had received their documents. We confirmed that we had and that they had already been captured, but capturing does not mean you qualify,” said Khanyile.
“Once the process has been closed, vetting has to be done to ensure all the documents that were submitted are correct. When the IEC was doing its vetting, it was discovered that the ANC‘s payment did not appear in the IEC account.”
Khanyile said the ANC is well within its rights to take the legal route and that objections are sent to the commission’s national office.
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