IEC to oppose ANC application against Cope name

03 Dec 2008 18:19 - Staff Reporter

The IEC will oppose an urgent application by the ANC against the use of the name Congress of the People (Cope), it was reported on Wednesday.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will oppose an urgent application by the African National Congress (ANC) against the use of the name Congress of the People (Cope), South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Wednesday.

The ANC’s interdict against Cope, led by former ANC veteran Mosiuoa Lekota, will be heard in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday next week.

This will be less than a week before Cope’s planned launch date of December 16.

In her answering affidavit to the application, IEC chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula said she had not yet made a decision on Cope’s application to be registered as a political party.

Tlakula said the Electoral Act gave her exclusive jurisdiction to decide on the application.

The ANC is arguing that the Congress of the People in 1955 was a “seminal, historical event” organised by the ANC and its congress alliance partners.

The Freedom Charter was adopted at this event.—Sapa