THE Constitutional Court will on Monday hand down judgment on whether the decision of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to reopen the candidate nomination process for the 2021 local government elections was unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid.
The judgment is expected to be handed down at 10am, the apex court confirmed in a statement on Sunday.
The ConCourt had earlier refused an IEC application to postpone the elections.
The DA filed an application against the IEC’s decision to reopen candidate lists for the local government elections after the ANC missed its deadline, allegedly due to technical glitches.
This after ANC failed to register and submit lists of the candidates who would represent it in the local government elections in 90 municipalities around the country.
The decision to reopen the lists was seen by various political parties as the IEC giving the ANC a lifeline.
On Saturday, the Constitutional Court gave its reasons for dismissing the IEC’s application to postpone the upcoming elections.
The IEC approached the apex court, citing fears of increasing Covid-19 infections.
The municipal elections will now be held on 1 November.
The majority judgment held that the IEC’s constitutional duty was to conduct the elections within the 90-day period, “making them as free and fair as circumstances reasonably permitted, and that our courts do not, save in rare and exceptional circumstances, have the power to relieve the commission of this duty”.
The majority judgment was equally not persuaded that, if elections took place on 1 November without a voter registration weekend, such elections would necessarily fail the standard of freeness and fairness.
The ConCourt’s order stipulates the timetable published by the IEC on 4 August shall remain applicable.
It further states that, as soon as possible after the issuing of the proclamation, the IEC must, in terms of section 11(2) of the Municipal Electoral Act, publish such amendments to the current timetable as may be reasonably necessary.
The majority judgment held the view that, if there were good reasons to doubt that pending elections would be free and fair, there was a mechanism to avoid going ahead with it, but the mechanism was not judicial. Parliament, not the courts, should make the choice.
- Additional reporting by local agencies.
