Mashaba s party to ’ appeal IEC rejection
The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has rejected the application by Herman Mashaba s ActionSA to register ’ as a political party. ActionSA s ’ national chair, Michael Beaumont, said the IEC decision was based on a perceived similarity with “” another political party that has never contested elections before. Beaumont said ActionSA has written to the IEC to initiate an appeal against the decision.
The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has rejected the application of Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA to register as a political party. ActionSA s national chair, ’ Michael Beaumont, said the IEC decision was based on a per“ceived similarity with another ” political party, Party of Action, which has never contested elections before despite having registered. The IEC also found fault with the use of the SA flag in ActionSA s logo.
Beaumont said ActionSA has written to the IEC to initiate an appeal against the decision.
The new party, which supports a free market economy, nonracialism, social justice and adherence to the rule of law, was officially launched at the end of August and registered with the IEC earlier in September.
It has set its sights on the 2021 local government elections, but will encounter a serious obstacle if it is unable to register with the IEC, which will oversee the elections.
DISTINGUISHING MARK
The IEC said Party of Action objected to ActionSA s appli’ cation on thegrounds that its proposed logo is too similar to “” its own.
The commission said it informed ActionSA in writing on Monday that its application had failed, due to the similarity of its symbol or distinguishing mark to that of another party already registered, and because its logo includes the SA flag.
The IEC gave ActionSA two options for its response to the rejection of its application: it can amend its symbol and publish a fresh notice of application; or it may appeal to the commission against the decision of the chief electoral officer within 30 days.
Beaumont said while the party will take the IEC s pro’ posed route of appealing against the decision, if necessary it will approach the courts to defend its legitimate registration. ” Our logo is derived from “The People s Dialogue ’, a pro‘ ’ cess in which millions of South Africans legitimised the formation of ActionSA. We have filed a trademark application with the registrar of trademarks and we will defend the identity of ActionSA without hesitation.
We note that no such exercise in IEC authority was demonstrated when the African Independent Congress [AIC] was allowed to register despite its [logo s] far greater similarities ’ to the ANC, as well as many other cases that we will include in our appeal,” Beaumont said.
The ANC has accused the AIC of benefiting from its logo, which uses the same colours as the governing party s, and its acro’ nym, which it alleges would confuse ANC-supporting voters at the ballot box who may unintentionally vote for the AIC.
Beaumont said there are 630 political parties in SA and the notion that similarities may exist is a natural consequence of this situation. However, in the case of ActionSA this could not be seen to rise to the required level of voters not being able to notice “the distinction ”.
The IEC s decision in this ’ matter is regrettable and inconsistent, he said.
The IEC said research into the design of the ballot paper in 2018 showed that voters use the party logo as the primary identifier to select the party they intend to vote for. Therefore more prominence has been given to party logos on the ballot paper to make it easier for voters to identify their party of choice and to limit votes cast inadvertently for other parties.
The IEC also raised issue with the use of the national flag in ActionSA s logo in respect of ’ the Heraldry Act of 1962. Given that the national flag “has been registered under the Heraldry Act 18 of 1962, no organisation, institution or concern, including a political party, may use the flag or portion of the flag to form part of its emblem,” the IEC said.
Beaumont said the IEC, as a chapter 9 institution, has no legal authority to decline an application outside the specific parameters of section 16 of the Electoral Commission Act. This section deals with a political party s ’ identity either being similar to that of another party to the extent that it would confuse voters, or engender violence through hate speech.
By including this in the rationale for their decision, the IEC has applied legislation to ActionSA that has not been applied to any number of political parties whose logos draw inspiration from the SA flag. This is a clear case of the IEC acting beyond its legal mandate,” he said.
We are disappointed by the position of the IEC, and trust that it will come around to make the correct decision in the appeal process without this matter having to proceed to court.”
OUR LOGO IS DERIVED FROM THE ‘ PEOPLE S DIALOGUE ’, ’ IN WHICH MILLIONS OF SOUTH AFRICANS LEGITIMISED ACTIONSA