Independent candidates must wait
Constitutional Court postpones urgent challenge to act, but activists say they worry this could allow election outcome to be contested
Individuals not affiliated to any political parties who want to contest in general elections will only possibly get a chance in 2024, if the Constitutional Court finds sections of the Electoral Act barring them from doing so is unconstitutional.
Individuals not affiliated to any political party who want to contest general elections will possibly only get a chance in 2024, if the Constitutional Court finds that sections of the Electoral Act barring them from doing so is unconstitutional.
On Thursday, the court postponed the urgent challenge to the act by lobby group New Nation Movement and others. Several independent candidates who wanted to stand in next week’s elections, had asked the Constitutional Court to halt the polls to allow the legislation to be challenged.
South Africans will cast their votes for any of 76 parties contesting the general elections on Wednesday.
The minister of home affairs and the Electoral Commission of SA opposed the application. The president and the speaker of the National Assembly, who were respondents, did not oppose it.
The merits of the case, which could have far-reaching consequences for SA’s electoral system, will now be heard by the court on August 15.
Justice Edwin Cameron said reasons for the court’s decision would be given at a later stage. Directions on further conduct in the case would be given by the court, but he made no order as to who should carry the costs for Thursday’s court appearance.
The applicants had appealed against a judgment of the high court in Cape Town which dismissed their application to have independent candidates included in the coming elections.
The applicants argued before the high court that section 57A and schedule 1A of the Electoral Act are unconstitutional and invalid as they do not provide for the constitutionally enshrined right of individuals to contest elections as independent candidates. Counsel for the applicants, Alan Nelson SC, had asked the court to postpone the elections and direct parliament to facilitate a mechanism to “give people their constitutional rights in the interim”.
New Nation Movement spokesperson Tshego Motaung said they were happy that the hearing had been set down for August.
“We had hoped that even within these elections something could have been done, remembering that the conversation did not start now,” she said.
The remedies that were available today would still be available in August, she said. The risk was that if the relevant sections in the act were declared unconstitutional, the outcome of the elections could be challenged, Motaung said.
The action was not aimed at disrupting elections, but about reforming the system.
“We are confident that this next parliament will have no option but to prioritise this matter,” she said.
THE ACTION IS NOT AIMED AT DISRUPTING ELECTIONS. WE ARE CONFIDENT THIS NEXT PARLIAMENT WILL HAVE TO PRIORITISE THE ISSUE