The Democratic Alliance says it will legally challenge the Independent Electoral Commission’s amended timetable in court.
This comes after the commission is set to reopen the candidate list for the 2021 municipal elections.
DA Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille says they do not believe the upcoming local government elections are free and fair.
“The latest developments actually underscore that my suspicions and my speculations were right from the start. They were entirely correct. The ANC withdrew its appeal to the Electoral Court because they had another plan. We certainly don’t believe that the elections are free and fair if there’s one rule for every other party but the ANC and if the IEC or anybody else bends the rules to fit the ANC’s circumstances, that is not our definition of free and fair.”
“The two are clearly distinct from each other. There had been no prior weekend dedicated to voter registration, because this was cancelled in July due to the Covid spike. However, there was a clear deadline for candidate registration, which the ANC missed.”
She added: “It cannot now demand a second bite at the cherry. This has never been granted before when other parties have requested leeway on an IEC deadline, resulting in the NFP’s total exclusion from the 2016 local election, and the IFP’s partial exclusion from certain wards in the 2011 election,” she added.
According to Zille, the DA had briefed its lawyers to explore all available legal avenues to oppose the IEC’s decision.
Voter registration will take place on 18 and 19 September.
The date of the election will then be announced on September 20.
The IEC says it’s an opportunity for new voters to register and for existing voters to update their details.
IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini says a new deadline will be set for political parties to submit their candidates’ lists.
The IEC says political parties will be able to register candidates for Local Government Elections.
The Commission has amended a timetable for which those who failed to register will be able to do so.
On Friday, the Constitutional Court ruled against an application by the IEC to have the elections postponed from October 27 to February 2022. The Court ruled that the polls must go ahead between October 27 and November 1.
The candidate nomination process closed on August 23, but a number of parties including the African National Congress (ANC) and United Democratic Movement (UDM) wanted it reopened, citing inadequate time to hold their candidate selection processes due to COVID-19 restrictions as well as technical problems encountered with the IEC system.
