The ANC has lodged an urgent application in the electoral court in a bid to force the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to accept candidates who were not registered due to alleged technical glitches with the electoral body’s online system.
The ruling party’s deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte, in her affidavit stated that the IEC’s refusal to allow the party to register candidates would affect the party's chances of contesting in 93 municipalities.
The party’s instructing attorney, Mongezi Ntanga, confirmed that papers were filed electronically to the Electoral Court.
“Of these, the incomplete candidates' list will have a significant affect on 35 municipalities, which will result in a change of government, or change in the main opposition without a single vote being cast,” said Duarte.
Duarte said the ANC will be out of 13 municipalities without contesting because it will not be in a position to have candidates on the proportional representation (PR) ballot due to names not being submitted on time.
“Because of the nature of the deposit for contesting the whole municipality, including all wards, by not contesting, we will only be allowed to contest two wards in each of these municipalities,” said Duarte.
“This is regardless of the fact that we registered ward candidates properly and we indicated our intention to contest every ward and every PR by paying the maximum national deposit.”
The deposit per municipality including all wards is R2,000 for a local municipality while it amounts to R3,500 per metro and R1,000 for a district council.
“In a further six municipalities, due to the late registration of PR candidates and the subsequent disqualification that will follow of all but two candidates per affected municipality, the ANC will lose its status as the main opposition party, without a single vote being cast.”
She said the troubles were compounded by the fact that the IEC system kept on freezing, which resulted in some of its candidates not being able to meet the 9pm IEC deadline for registration.
“In nine municipalities, the ANC will lose its status as the governing party... due to insufficient candidates being entered on time. Furthermore, it will lose its status as the main opposition party in seven for the same reason,” she said.
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