The Constitutional Court has dealt former Amcu’s President Joseph Mathunjwa’s labour party a blow, ruling that his party will not be allowed to contest in the upcoming 2024 elections.
Former ANC secretary general Ace Magashule’s African Congress for Transformation (ACT) will only be able to contest in provinces where it submitted the candidates’ names promptly.
The ruling comes after contentious litigation surrounding the parties’ failure to register on time. They include the ACT, Labour Party and the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats. The parties blamed technical glitches within the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) digital submission platform.
The dispute centred on their inability to meet registration deadlines due to purported issues with the IEC’s digital infrastructure.
Electoral Court rejected parties’ application
The Electoral Court previously rejected the parties’ applications despite the arguments put forth by the parties. It maintained that the alleged system inefficiencies did not excuse the parties’ failure to comply with registration prerequisites.
During the proceedings, Advocate Chris Loxton, representing the Labour Party, contested the adequacy of the IEC’s systems. He cited a purported failure rate of 35% in submitting required information.
Loxton likened this rate to a scenario of significant digital infrastructure issues, urging for a reconsideration.
“That’s just untrue, 35% failure rate is not a small minority. And 65% is not a vast majority. What it indicates is that despite the glowing reports from the service provider who said their system is working well, and the argument that if some could do it, everyone could do it, there were significant difficulties,” Loxton argued.
Conversely, Magashule’s party advocated for a grace period to submit outstanding documents. It did not request a comprehensive review of the electoral timetable.
ConCourt questioned fairness of IEC incurring R500m cost
The IEC, in opposition to reopening the submission window, emphasised the effective functioning of its online portal. It highlighted the substantial costs, exceeding R500-million, that such an action would entail.
In response, Justice Steven Majiedt questioned the fairness of incurring such expenses. Particularly when the majority of parties managed to submit documents on time. He underscored the importance of upholding election timetables. This as a means to safeguard the integrity of the elections.
It was initially wrongly reported that Magashule’s party ACT will not contest in the upcoming elections due to the court ruling. According to the ruling, however, ACT will only contest elections in the provinces in which the names of candidates were submitted on time. Apologies for the error.
