By: Sello Theletsane
The ANC is set to miss out on the Cape Town vote due to having failed to register candidates on time.
According to the court papers submitted to the Electoral Court, there are no registered PR candidates out of the 116 ward councillors accepted in the Cape Town Municipality.
The papers filed by deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte also indicated that it would be the same in Kannaland, Knysna, George and Prince Albert. She said the deposit issue would impact those.
Another province that will be significantly impacted by the failure to submit on time is KwaZulu-Natal. The party has failed to register all of its ward candidates in four municipalities in uPhongolo, Abaqulusi, Nongoma, and Ulundi. In Limpopo, the party has failed to register candidates in Waterberg, Bela-Bela, Mogalakwena, Ephraim Mogale, Lephalale, Makhuduthamaga, Fetagomo Tubatse, Elias Motsoaledi and Sekhukhune.
After failing to submit the names on time, the party filed an urgent court application to re-open the candidate registration process. It blamed Covid-19 lockdown regulations and a technical glitch in its systems for failing to meet a deadline. The impact of that was a failure to register candidates in at least 35 municipalities.
The legal challenge came after engagements between the party and IEC yielded no positive results. The commission said this would leave too little time to print the 78-million ballots to be delivered to 23 121 voting stations in time for the local government elections.
However, the party has withdrawn its court application, opting to wait for the ruling by the Constitutional Court on the IEC’s application to postpone the elections scheduled for 27 October.
In its withdrawal statement, the party said it had brought the application to protect the rights of hundreds of thousands of citizens who would be deprived of the right to vote for a candidate of their choice due to the inability of the party of their choice to register its candidates.
“As a majority party in government at the national, provincial and local level, and a leader of society, the ANC has a broader responsibility to protect, strengthen and deepen our system of multiparty democracy, a system which constitutes one of the foundational provisions of our Constitution. Accordingly, in view of the fact that the matter is before the Constitutional Court, the ANC has decided to withdraw its application and await the Court’s judgment,” spokesperson Pule Mabe said.
Well well well the ANC missed the boat. They flaunted the rules and the regulations and for that ,there is no excuse. You have to adhere to the deadlines .If you miss the deadlines it means you have fallen out of status. There ANC behaves as if they are the alpha and omega of politics in SA. ‘When people get used to preferential ,equal treatment seems like discrimination.’-Prof Thomas Sowell.