The African Congress for Transformation (ACT) plans to participate in the national elections across all nine provinces and for provincial ballots in six regions, with exceptions in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the Western Cape.
Additionally, they’ll contest a regional vote in the Western Cape.
ACT on ballot paper
ACT’s national spokesperson, Prince Mabena, stressed that despite their candidate list needing approval, the party still appears on the ballot papers.
“We were not going to plead with the IEC [Electoral Commission of South Africa”] if we’re not on the ballot,” he said.
“We are shocked because we thought our submission was fair enough to get a good understanding from the judge.”
Yesterday, the Constitutional Court rejected the final attempt by ACT, the Labour Party, and the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats (SASD) to participate in the 29 May elections.
According to The Citizen, the court stated that it would furnish explanations for these decisions later.
The three parties had petitioned the highest court, requesting another chance to register their party’s candidates.
They attributed their disqualification to technical issues with the IEC’s digital submission platform.
Mabena mentioned that ACT is currently assessing the situation and will consult legal experts to decide their action.
The court rejected the Labour Party’s request to be directly heard and didn’t consider the extra details they provided because it wasn’t in a format the court could accept.
The Labour Party needed clarification on the decision.
Krister Janse van Rensburg, from the Labour Party, felt the court chose a simple path by not addressing the main points of their case, instead focusing on the technical rules of direct access.
He explained that the request for direct access focused on malfunctioning the IEC’s online submission system, which resulted in many parties needing help uploading their documents, as Section 27 of the Electoral Act required.
He added: “For the apex court to disregard our application supported by 19 other political parties, is almost unbelievable.”
Read more: Efforts by ACT, AASD, and the Labour Party to delay elections were unsuccessful
Labour Party legal representative challenges functionality of IEC online portal
The legal representative for the Labour Party of South Africa has contended that the claims made by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) regarding the effectiveness of its online portal are inaccurate.
Advocate Chris Loxton contends that according to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) itself, only 65% of parties successfully uploaded their documents by the stipulated date of 8 March, as outlined in the election timetable, by Section 27 of the Electoral Act.
Reported by SABC News, three political parties contest the eligibility criteria the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) set for the 2024 election.
The Labour Party claims it couldn’t meet the deadline because of technical issues it asserts were present in the IEC’s online platform.
The party is urgently appealing to the Constitutional Court after the Electoral Court dismissed its application to challenge the forthcoming national and general elections.
“There are frequent references to a handful or a very small minority of parties who were unable to upload their documents in time, that the vast majority of those who were required to do so did so successfully. That’s just untrue. 35% failure rate is not a small minority and a 65% is not a vast majority. What it indicates is that despite glowing reports from the service provider who said their system was working well and the argument that if some could do it, all could do it. There were significant difficulties.”
The Labour Party, the African Congress for Transformation, and the Labour Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats are all presenting their cases before the court.
Each party attributes their inability to meet the IEC’s requirements to technical glitches they claim were present in the electoral commission’s online portal.
However, the Electoral Court sided with the IEC, stating that evidence indicated the Online Candidate Nomination System was operational without any problems during the crucial period.
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