EFF leader, Julius Malema, has accused the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of a lack of transparency in the process of registering candidates for the upcoming local government polls.
This as the IEC postponed the deadline of five o’clock to nine o’clock on Monday evening, saying several political parties have requested the extension as they still needed to finalise the list of those who will represent them in the polls.
“We are saying to the IEC, be transparent. Don’t talk to us in fork tongues. “Several political parties” – what is that? There is no party in South Africa called ‘several political parties. Tell us who asked for postponement from 5 o clock to 9 o clock,” said Malema.
“We called the CEO of the IEC who said, ‘I checked, they said the system is closed’. I sent him a video where the system was still running and open. What is casting doubt about that? It is a fact – the system was not closed at 9am.”
Malema said it is obvious that the IEC is taking sides because the online system was still open beyond 9 pm.
He briefed the media a little earlier in Johannesburg during a virtual press conference.
“In the IEC we were all asked for IEC to postpone elections, they told us it’s not easy to postpone anything there. But they just came and postponed 5 o’clock saying several political parties, what type a party is that one. There is no party in South Africa called several political parties. The IEC should have been transparent from the beginning and said the following parties have requested that we postpone the time from 5 o’clock to 9 o’clock and we have adhered to that. ”
- Inside Politics
