The Inkatha Freedom Party says it has no intention of ending its Coalition for Change agreement with the Democratic Alliance, even if it is invited to govern KwaZulu-Natal with the ANC.
IFP national spokesperson Musa Zondi said on Wednesday that he did not understand what all the ”fuss” was about.
”When we entered the coalition we were already in government with the ANC. This coalition will continue. I don’t understand where this comes from… it is just a figment of the media’s imagination,” he said.
Meanwhile, the party would lodge papers with Electoral Court on Wednesday detailing the grounds for its decision to challenge the declaration of last week’s election as free and fair.
The IFP has accused the Independent Electoral Commission of going ahead last Saturday with announcing the poll results and declaring the election free and fair without having probed 42 complaints of violence and intimidation registered by the party.
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 their registered districts — about 367 000 in total.
The party maintains that while the 42 listed violations were mostly in 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.
The IFP won 30 seats in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, compared to the ANC’s 38. KwaZulu-Natal is the IFP’s traditional stronghold. The DA got seven seats.
Nationally, the IFP came third with 28 National Assembly seats. The ANC got 279 and the DA 50. Zondi dismissed concerns that the court action would affect the swearing in of new MPs on Friday.
”The two actions are not connected. Our action is not going to hold up all the other provinces. The court is empowered to take seats away from parties should it be found that we were robbed … that is what the Electoral Act says. It will just have to start from scratch.”
Zondi said he was not sure when a decision would be returned by the court.
”It could take a day, a week, a month… anytime.” – Sapa