ANC ready to battle it out at polls
THE ANC is ready to battle it out with its rivals in the upcoming local government elections on November 1 after concluding the registration of its candidates with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) on time – after experiencing serious glitches last month.
The party failed to register candidates in at least 95 municipalities before the initial IEC registration deadline of August 23, which would have given parties such as the EFF and DA an edge over it.
The two opposition parties had registered candidates in all 257 municipalities during the first round of registration in August.
However, a Constitutional Court ruling which rejected the IEC’s application to postpone the local government elections until February next year provided an indirect lifeline to the ANC and other parties that had failed to register all their candidates. The lifeline to the ANC came as a result of the IEC’s decision on September 6 to reopen the nomination of candidates.
The IEC’s decision prompted the DA to lodge an application in the Concourt, arguing that the decision to reopen the candidate nomination process was unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid, and called for it to be set aside. The Concourt ruled against the DA which gave more armoury to the ANC to consolidate its list ahead of the
September 21 deadline set by the IEC.
Yesterday, an elated ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte told the media that its registration of candidates was actually concluded on Monday this week, ahead of the electoral body’s deadline.
“The ANC will be represented in all wards across the country. ANC candidates, selected with the support of communities, will contest in 4 468 out of 4 468 wards in 257 metros, local and district municipalities across the length and the breadth of the country,” Duarte said. She said 46% of ANC ward and proportional representation (PR) candidates were women. Although women candidates were mainly found on their PR lists, Duarte said, the ANC was proud of the women who had gained the confidence of their communities to be selected as ward candidates.
She added: “When we look at the median age of our candidates, we find that 25% of our candidates are young people. This demonstrates our confidence in the future and the capacity of young people. Most of them are graduates who can breathe life into local government.”
Duarte also said they were now receiving exception reports from the IEC regarding some of their candidates.
“We are going to discuss the exception reports with their respective leaders before taking any decision to remove them from the list. If a decision to remove them is taken, we would then consider a candidate who obtained a second spot and register him or her,” she said.