Johannesburg – The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Monday said it will launch an urgent court bid in an attempt to postpone eight by-elections scheduled for Wednesday.
The Commission in a statement said to approach the Electoral Court to postpone the ballots following the implementation of level 4 lockdown restrictions.
“The Electoral Commission took the decision to seek the court’s approval to postpone the by-elections at an emergency meeting today after the announcement last night by President Cyril Ramaphosa of additional measures to help curb the third wave currently gripping the country. These measures included raising the lockdown restrictions to level 4 which includes a ban on all gatherings (except for funerals) including political gatherings,” the statements reads in part.
“Wednesday’s by-elections were the final by-elections scheduled to be conducted prior to the cessation of by-elections ahead of the Local Government Elections scheduled for October this year. They were to have taken place in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu–Natal, Northern Cape and Western Cape across 48 voting stations and involving 71 305 registered voters. They were to have been contested by forty (40) candidates from fourteen (14) political parties, and three (3) independent candidates.”
Elections were set to take in ward 3 in the Makana Municipality, Eastern Cape, ward 98 in the eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and ward 05 in the eDumbe Municipality also in KZN. Ward 1 in the Sol Plaatje Municipality in the Northern Cape will be affected. The majority of affected wards are in the Western Cape, with ward 51 and 63 in the City of Cape Town Municipality impacted. Ward 01 in the Cederberg Municipality ward 02 in the Swartland Municipality will also have to wait a little while before casting their ballots should the IEC get its way.
“Between March 2020 and March 2021 the Electoral Commission approached the Electoral Court to postpone over 100 by-elections during the first and second waves of the pandemic. These by-elections were safely conducted during lulls in the pandemic when restrictions were at level 1 during November and December 2020 and again during March, April and May 2021,” the statement concluded.
President Cyril Ramaphosa in April announced Wednesday, 27 October 2021, as the date on which local government elections will take place. This will be the sixth time under South Africa’s democratic dispensation that voters will elect leadership and public representatives at metropolitan, district and local level.
However, the IEC last month appointed former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke to lead a process to evaluate whether conditions in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic were conducive for the holding of free and fair local government elections later this year.
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