The African National Congress on Friday formally asked the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to nullify the results of the by-election in KwaZulu-Natal’s Imbabazane local municipality.
Serious clashes between the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the ANC broke out in Imbabazane on Wednesday night immediately after the results of the by-election were announced.
The clashes, which prompted police top brass to deploy officers to the area to monitor the situation, saw two men, one from each party, shot and 10 cars badly damaged.
The IFP, which won the by-election, on Thursday blamed the ANC for the clashes, saying that the ruling party had failed to accept the defeat as part of a democratic process.
The ANC, however, wanted the IEC to nullify the results. The party blamed its rival for breaking every rule of the electoral code of conduct.
”Weeks prior to the by-elections, ANC members had been subjected to open intimidation, threatened and insulted by senior IFP members
including the mayor of Estcourt, Maliyakhe Shelembe,” the ANC said in a statement on Friday.
”On the day of the by-elections the IFP announced with a loud hailer in the morning that the ANC candidate had withdrawn and that only their
candidate was standing for elections,” the party said.
The IFP on Friday dismissed the ANC’s call for the election to be voided as the ”simply cries of the people who cannot accept defeat.”
”These are simply cries of the people who cannot accept defeat, nothing more. The ANC has given all its opponents a taste of its likely reaction to the loss of political power in KwaZulu-Natal which appears inevitable on April 22,” said IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango in a statement.
The IFP retained three seats contested by the ruling party in Wednesday’s by-election and wrested one from the ANC.
The party said the results of the election in Imbabazane were ”duly accepted” by the IEC and counter-signed by the party agents of all the
political parties participating, including the ANC.
The ANC further charged that IFP members blockaded voting stations with their cars during the by-election on Wednesday.
”As a result of the IFP’s illegal, obstructive and violent actions, ANC voters were intimidated from accessing voter stations and the climate for free and fair elections did not exist,” read the statement.
The IFP also held roadblocks throughout the day at all entrances leading to voting stations, intimidating people who were coming to vote
especially those they suspected were ANC members, the party said.
The IFP countered this saying that by-elections were held with a ”heavy police presence”, making the disruptions described by the ANC ”impossible”.
”We wonder whether the ANC would make the same allegations of electoral misconduct on our part, if … it had actually won this by-election,” said Mncwango.
The ANC said it would ask that the security cluster declare Imbabazane a hot spot and ensure more police and the South African National Defence Force were deployed there.
IEC head in the province Mawethu Mosery on Friday confirmed the receipt of an objection to the results by the ANC and said the commission would consider it and investigate the allegations. — Sapa