Opposition parties have warned that should the African National Congress’s (ANC) application to have the Electoral Court reopen the candidate list system, the integrity to hold free and fair elections will be grossly undermined.
The ANC will approach the Electoral Court after it said it had experienced technical problems on the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) website which prevented the party from registering candidates for the upcoming local government elections in October.
But several parties including the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance are calling on the IEC to dismiss the application.
Action SA leader Herman Mashaba said the governing party was trying to delay the upcoming government elections because they fear the backlash from fed-up South Africans.
“It appears to us that they are just not really prepared to allow South Africans to exercise their democratic right to elect public representatives. Now, all of a sudden, they are expecting the IEC to do what they constitutionally cannot do.”
The Congress of the People (Cope) has also taken issue with the application.
Cope’s Dennis Bloem said: “The ANC must just accept that they have failed to meet the deadline to register some of their candidates. We call upon all political parties, independent candidates, and civil society to raise their voices and reject the ANC’s application.”
-EWN
In other news – Lady Du replaces Somizi as Idols SA judge
Amapiano hit sensation Duduzile “Lady Du” Ngwenya will be the first guest judge to replace the beleaguered Somizi Mhlongo on the first Idols Season 17 live show on Sunday.
Mzansi Magic has revealed that Lady Du will kick-start the plan to rotate celebrity guest judges this season of the popular singing show. The Umsebenzi Wethu vocalist will sit on the judging panel alongside Unathi Nkayi and Randall Abrahams. Learn More
