The Inkatha Freedom Party and Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) lodged founding papers with the Electoral Court on Wednesday contesting the declaration of last week’s elections as free and fair. A court official confirmed receipt of the documents.
”The papers will now be sent to the judges, who will decide on dates for the hearings, merit allowing,” said the official.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), named as the respondent in both matters, would be given an opportunity to respond before a date and venue was decided for each hearing.
The IFP is to challenge the IEC’s decision to announce the results of last Wednesday’s national and provincial elections three days later and declare the poll free and fair, allegedly without investigating 42 complaints of violence and intimidation registered by the party.
The IFP believes such irregularities may have cost it its traditional power base of KwaZulu-Natal, where it trails the African National Congress with 30 provincial legislature seats to 38. The IFP’s alliance partner, the Democratic Alliance, got seven seats.
For its part, the FF Plus is to appeal an IEC decision to reject its complaints of electoral fraud. It echoed the IFP’s criticism of the election having been declared free and fair without all objections having been satisfactorily resolved.
IFP spokesperson John Aulsebrook declined to divulge the exact nature of his party’s application, as this ”could have some effect on the legal process”.
However, its objection to the IEC’s decision to declare the poll free and fair did not necessarily mean the IFP would challenge the election results themselves.
”We are not saying that the election was not free and fair. We simply don’t know yet. All we want is for the IEC to investigate our complaints and report back to us. They might find that there is substance to our complaints,” he said on Tuesday.
The complaints related to alleged irregularities such as people being allowed to vote more than once and eligible voters being turned away from polling stations.
The IFP was also concerned about an apparently large group of people in KwaZulu-Natal having been allowed to vote outside of their registered districts — about 367 000 in total.
While the 42 listed violations occurred mostly to KwaZulu-Natal, they are likely to have affected the party’s provincial and therefore also national showing — and by implication the election as a whole, Aulsebrook said on Tuesday.
Nationally, the IFP came third with 28 National Assembly seats. The ANC got 279 and the DA 50.
Deputy chief electoral officer Norman du Plessis on Saturday said the IEC had received no official objections by Friday’s 9pm deadline.
According the Aulsebrook, the IFP had been unable to formally object as the IEC had not yet ruled on its complaints — which were lodged timeously. There was, therefore, nothing to object against.
The FF Plus’ complaints related to a voting station in Welkom in the Free State, where party supporters declared under oath that they had made their crosses, but no votes were counted for the FF Plus.
”At the same polling station, there is a 500 votes difference between votes cast for the national and provincial governments. The question arises what happened to the 500 and who were they cast for?” the party said in a statement.
It demanded a re-count at the particular polling station, and if a fundamental difference became apparent, of all other stations in the Welkom area.
The IEC confirmed it had been served papers from the IFP’s lawyers, and said it was studying them.
The commission had not yet received final documentation on the FF Plus’ court application. – Sapa