News24 | New party heads to court after IEC blocks its PR candidates from Eastern Cape polls

New political party Defend SA Movement has approached the Electoral Court to challenge the IEC’s exclusion of its PR candidates from the Senqu local government elections in the Eastern Cape.

Tebogo Letsie/City Press

• Defend SA Movement, led by veteran politician Mfanelo Skwatsha, has launched an urgent court bid to overturn the IEC’s decision to exclude its PR candidates in Senqu.
• The party claims the IEC undertook to include its candidates after they provided proof of payment, but they were missing from the commission’s certified list.
• The IEC says it cannot comment because the matter is before the courts, while its lawyers have informed the party that the application will be opposed.

A newly formed political party has launched an urgent court application after its candidates were excluded from the proportional representative (PR) list contesting local government elections in the Eastern Cape’s Senqu Local Municipality.

Lawyers representing the Defend SA Movement, led by veteran politician and businessman Mfanelo Skwatsha, approached the Electoral Court on Tuesday in a bid to have the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) decision to disqualify the party’s PR candidates reviewed and declared unconstitutional and invalid.

This was done a day after the Constitutional Court heard arguments in the ANC’s application for leave to appeal against the Electoral Court’s order last month that upheld the IEC’s exclusion of the party’s candidates from six municipalities in the local government elections.

While the ANC’s dispute arose from the party’s failure to press the “submit as final” button in the IEC’s online system for six municipalities before the 17:00 cut-off on 28 August, the movement’s candidates were disqualified for allegedly failing to follow the commission’s regulations.

READ | ConCourt rules for ANC in candidate lists case

Skwatsha has disputed the IEC’s decision and told News24 they tried to raise the matter with the commission to no avail.

“After not getting the answers we wanted, we had no option but to go to the Electoral Court,” Skwatsha, the former secretary-general of the Pan Africanist Congress, told News24.

The party, with offices in Sterkspruit, is contesting elections only in Senqu. It was, however, able to register its ward candidates.

“We paid the deposits to contest elections for ward and PR positions in Senqu. At first, the IEC said we were being disqualified because we were not contesting the PR positions for the Joe Gqabi District Municipality, but we told them it was our decision to only contest in Senqu,” said Skwatsha.

He claimed the IEC had undertaken to include the party’s candidates for the PR list in Senqu after they presented proof of payment of their deposits.

“We were shocked when we discovered in the IEC’s certified list for candidates contesting elections that we were nowhere featured on Senqu’s PR list. We immediately raised the matter with the IEC, but it was clear from the beginning that they were not prepared to listen to us,” Skwatsha said.

READ | DA wants parties to name their PR councillors upfront. The court has questions

The movement said it was entitled to fair administrative action by the IEC.

“It is our view that the omission materially and adversely affects our rights as a party, our candidates and the voters in our municipality. The omission denies our candidates the right to stand for public office and, most importantly, it denies the voters in our municipality the right to vote for a party of their choice,” said Skwatsha.

He called for electoral reforms that will ensure that every citizen and party has access to a fair and speedy resolution of any dispute that is likely to infringe their constitutional rights.

“It is our view that the Electoral Court is not easily accessible. We propose the establishment of conciliation and arbitration processes, especially when dealing with administrative matters. It is our considered view that the Electoral Court should only deal with vexed legal issues,” said Skwatsha.

IEC’s Eastern Cape spokesperson, Sanda Nodada, told News24 on Thursday that the commission’s management had advised “that we cannot comment on this matter as it is now before the courts and waiting for the outcome”.

Skwatsha said their legal team was informed by the IEC’s lawyers on Wednesday afternoon that the commission would oppose the application.

On Thursday, the ANC succeeded in the Constitutional Court in having its candidate lists for six municipalities accepted by the IEC.