IEC wants tomorrow’s by-elections to be put on hold

THE Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) says it will urgently approach the Electoral Court to postpone eight by-elections scheduled across four provinces tomorrow, following the implementation of Alert Level 4 restrictions.

Ward 51 (Langa) and Ward 63 (Ottery) in the City of Cape Town municipality, and Ward 1 and Ward 2 in the Cederberg and Swartland municipalities respectively, were to be contested in the Western Cape.

The IEC said the decision came after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced additional measures to help curb the third wave.

“Wednesday's by-elections were the final by-elections scheduled to be conducted prior to the cessation of by-elections ahead of the local government elections scheduled for October this year.

“They were to have taken place in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu–Natal,

Northern Cape and Western Cape across 48 voting stations and involving 71 305 registered voters.

“They were to have been contested by 40 candidates from 14 political parties, and three independents,” said the IEC.

Political parties had mixed reactions to a possible postponement.

Provincial ANC head of communications Sifiso Mtsweni said yesterday that the party would observe and welcome the outcome when changes are made through the electoral court application.

DA national spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube said the party did not believe that the Level 4 lockdown regulations would be conducive for by-elections.

“We will await their feedback and the impact of this for the upcoming registration weekend,” Gwarube said.

Land Party leader Gcobani Ndzongana said there was no rationale for postponing a by-election as voter turnout is notoriously low, and they are usually held when people are working.

Pieter Groenewald, leader of the Freedom Front Plus, said if the health protocols are adhered to, by-elections should continue, with shortening the time of voting to 7am-7pm.

This is as EFF Cape Metro spokesperson Mbulelo Dwane said the party has told the IEC that both by-elections and local government elections should be postponed.

“Our people are dying, they need to be vaccinated. Government has no plan, the EFF has marched to demand vaccines and the people are quiet and doing nothing, we should go to the streets and demand vaccination,” he said.

Xubera Institute for Research and Development political analyst Xolani Dube slammed the government for being “incompetent”.

“Covid has been with us for almost a year and six months, and any government that is competent was supposed to be ready for such a kind of circumstances and to allow South Africans their constitutional rights to vote.

“For people not to be able to go vote, that infringes on their constitutional right,” he said.