It could lose status as the ruling party or main opposition in 35 municipalities ‘without a single vote being cast’
The Constitutional Court is hearing an urgent application by the Electoral Commission, which wants the local government elections postponed. File photo.ANC wants to force the IEC to grant the party an additional 36 hours to finalise and submit its candidate list for the upcoming municipal elections.
The ANC blamed the failure on technical glitches on the IEC’s information technology systems used to upload lists of candidates. In its court papers, the ANC also argues that should the electoral court not grant the additional requested hours, the party should at least be permitted to pay deposits that would allow it to field ward candidates in municipalities where it failed to submit a list of proportional representation candidates.
The party now runs the risk of failing to contest for elections in hundreds of municipal wards should its court bid to pay an additional electoral deposit of R365,000 be unsuccessful.“The ANC has paid the total applicable fee of R482,000 to contest all metropolitan council , district council , local council and ward elections in the 2021 local government elections. Parties that do not register for PR ballot but only for a ward have to pay an amount of R1,000 per ward.
“ANC contends that the effects of lockdown regulations, imposed as a result of the pandemic, restricted its ability to properly prepare and finalise the candidate lists in the three weeks it was afforded. The lockdown restrictions meant that the very little time was in fact afforded for parties to fully and effectively prepare for elections,” she said.
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