PHUTI MOSOMANE
THE DA-led multi-party coalition in Tshwane is taking urgent legal advice on the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) decision to invalidate 69 ballots during the election of the Speaker of Council on Monday, according to joint caucus chairperson, Jacqui Uys.
“The Multi-Party Coalition has lodged a formal objection to the outcome of the election of speaker of the Tshwane municipal council, after the IEC classified 69 ballots cast for Kholofelo Morodi (ActionSA) as ‘spoilt’,” Uys said on Tuesday.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) councillor Mncedi Ndzwanana was elected the new Speaker of the City of Tshwane council, an election outcome considered a major win for the ANC-led multi-party coalition.
Ndzwanana was elected on Monday night with 211 councillors participating in the elections. Ndzwanana received 105 votes, beating ActionSA councillor Kholofelo Morodi, who received 37.
The votes cast by 69 DA councillors were disqualified after they were declared spoilt ballots by the IEC because of how they were marked.
Uys said during the counting process, the DA, ActionSA and FF Plus party agents pointed to the fact that the 69 ballots clearly indicated the intention of voters.
“There was no confusion or ambiguity in the markings. Neither were any ballots defaced. The IEC classified the 69 votes as ‘spoilt’ based on the fact that they were marked not with a crosses but with numbers,” Uys claimed.
She said, “in the IEC’s own literature, one of the examples of a valid vote is one where the intention of the voter is indicated by the marking of a number.”
Had the 69 so-called ‘spoilt’ ballots not been discarded, the total result for Morodi would have been 106 of the 211 ballots cast.
“We believe that IEC officials were under pressure by the ANC and the EFF to discard these ballots in order to ensure the election of their preferred speaker candidate,” Uys added.
Uys claimed that all 69 ballots were cast for Morodi, whom the multi-party coalition had endorsed as candidate for Speaker of the Council.
“The Multi-Party Coalition will be consulting attorneys today to determine what remedy is available to us to ensure that the 69 ballots cast for Councillor Morodi are duly counted,” she said.
The EFF in Tshwane said it welcomed the election of Ndzwanana as Speaker of the Council.
INSIDE POLITICS
