Johannesburg – The ANC is likely to be found wanting should the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) not reopen the process to register candidates for local elections, a situation that is set to cost the governing party dearly at the polls next month.
Sunday World understands that the party’s interpretation of the Constitutional Court’s decision to set aside the proclamation of the election date – October 27 – means that the IEC was going to allow a fresh round of registration of candidates’ lists.
On Monday, all eyes will be on the IEC’s announcement on the amendments to its timetable following the Constitutional Court’s decision that the elections be held by no later than November 1, the time by which the term of office of the current councils lapses.
The ruling by the country’s apex court has led to different interpretations, with the ANC expecting the IEC to reopen registration while opposition parties have threatened legal action should the electoral body yield to its request.
Sunday World has established that a special meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) on Friday concluded that the judgment of the Constitutional Court meant that the party had one more chance to submit lists of its candidates.
Infighting, protests over failure to pay staff salaries and Covid-19 regulations were among the reasons presented for the party’s bungling of the process to meet the deadline of August 23 to submit its lists.
An NEC member who attended the meeting on Friday said the governing party had deliberated at length on the embarrassment caused by the failure to submit the lists on time. “Jessie [ Duarte] presented the NWC [national working committee] report and explained why we withdrew from the Electoral Court. She said action will be taken for failing to submit lists on time,” he said.
The ANC failed to field full lists of candidates in 93 municipalities across the country. It risks losing power or its status as the main opposition in 35 councils.
Another NEC member said President Cyril Ramaphosa decried the lack of preparations for the local elections. Ramaphosa is, however, said to have acknowledged that factors such as the onset of Covid-19 had hampered the ANC’s ability to prepare for the elections.
In its judgment on Friday, the Constitutional Court did not mention amendments to the submissions of candidate lists, but addressed itself to voter registration.
Declaring that the proclamation by Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma unconstitutional and invalid, the Constitutional Court said the IEC’s current timetable remained applicable.
In terms of the timetable, published by the IEC on August 4, the deadline for the submission of candidates was August 23. DA federal chairperson Helen Zille yesterday threatened legal action should the IEC reopen the process for registration of candidates.
“Our lawyers say the order does not allow the re-registration of candidates. If they try this, we will interdict the IEC,” she said.
Asked what action it will take should the IEC allow the re-registration of candidates, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivhambu referred to his Twitter post.
“Our prayer to the @ConCourtSA as the @EFFSouth Africa was that the submissions of the party nominations must be extended, and the court dismissed the relief we sought. So, it will be irrational and outrightly illegal for the IEC to do what the court said must not be done,” he said.
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