The African National Congress (ANC) on Thursday asked the Constitutional Court to invalidate the 12 local council by-elections their candidates were excluded from in the Western Cape.
This came amid accusations from opposition parties that the ANC used intimidation tactics to ensure there was a low turnout at voting stations.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) declined to register the 12 because they went past the deadline for submitting names, papers and deposits.
When the ANC protested that they were only 10 minutes late, the IEC insisted that a deadline is a deadline, and the electoral court agreed.
However, the ANC in the province is saying that for it to be prevented from contesting by-elections — in wards previously held by the party — distorts the political landscape.
”The reason we are asking the Constitutional Court to intervene in this matter is because the ANC’s exclusion from contesting the 12 by-elections disenfranchises tens of thousands of voters,” the party said.
”It creates conditions for councillors to be elected with little community support.
”This scenario will not instil community confidence in local government and is likely to have a negative effect on service delivery.”
Access barred
The Times newspaper on Thursday reported protests among ANC supporters due to the party’s exclusion from some of the polls.
A number of voting stations were illegally chained shut and others were blocked with rubbish and human faeces, the paper said.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille blamed low voter turnout partly on ANC intimidation and announced said had laid a formal charge with the IEC.
”The ANC said to people that there isn’t an election and encouraged other people not to vote by beginning to toyi-toyi … it seems there were cases [where] ANC members overstepped the mark,” said IEC spokesperson Courtney Sampson.
But ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha said that party members were only telling their own supporters not to vote in certain wards.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa also said his supporters complained about ANC members misleading voters by announcing that the elections had been postponed.
”This shows that democracy to the ANC means it must favour only themselves and that it should benefit the party and not the nation,” Holomisa added.
”The ANC will stop at nothing to make sure they discourage people so that at the end of it all people can say the voting turnout was low because the ANC was not there.” — I-Net Bridge