EFF accuses IEC of bias

THE EFF has accused the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) of favouring the ANC, which it also blames for exercising undue influence over the elections body.

The country’s third biggest political party has joined the DA’s Constitutional Court challenge to the IEC’s decision to reopen the candidate nomination process for the 2021 local government elections.

The DA wants the apex court to declare the commission’s move unconstitutional, unlawful, invalid and reviewed and set aside.

In an answering affidavit filed by its secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini, the EFF complained that there are prevailing suspicions that the IEC made the decision to reopen the candidate nomination process to favour the ANC.

“These suspicions seem to be born of what should be common cause facts.

“These are the fact that the ANC has written to various correspondences requesting, in some instances demanding, that the commission reopen the candidate nomination process,” Dlamini said.

According to the EFF, despite the apex court being seized with the IEC’s unsuccessful application to have the municipal polls postponed and having reserved its judgment, the ANC brought, and later withdrew, its bid to compel the commission at the Electoral Court.

Dlamini said after the Concourt granted its order in the IEC application on September 3, the ANC announced that it would beg the commission to reopen the candidate nomination process.

“This clearly evidences the ANC’s desperate need to have the process reopened.

“One can readily appreciate such desperation in light of the extent to which the ANC failed to submit their lists,” he said.

Dlamini said the suspicions were compounded by the fact that the IEC reopened the submission of candidate nomination lists for extra hours at a time when the ANC was desperately scrambling to upload the lists, and that there is no doubt that the governing party earnestly wants the process reopened.

He added that the ANC stands to disproportionately benefit from the IEC’s decision to reopen the submission of candidate nomination lists.

“That is not free and fair as required by our electoral laws …

“The commission must not only be fair and ensure free elections but must also be seen to be so.

“Its decision in inimical to this and that in itself warrants the reconsideration of its decision,” Dlamini said.

Responding to the EFF’s accusations, IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo described the allegations of perceived bias towards any political party as “entirely mischievous” and inconsistent with the commission’s objective conduct in this matter.

Makana Independent New Deal, on the other hand, indicated that it does not intend to oppose the matter and will abide with the court’s decision.