The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) has recently made a ruling regarding the African Congress for Transformation (ACT), Labour Party of South Africa, and Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats’ (AASD) application to contest the upcoming elections.
These three parties approached the apex court in an attempt to register their party candidates after encountering issues with the submission of their candidate lists. However, the ConCourt has dismissed their application, effectively denying them the opportunity to participate in the elections.
The parties argued that the malfunctioning of the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) online portal for the submission of political parties’ candidate lists prevented them from complying with Section 27 of the Electoral Act 73 of 1998.
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They requested a postponement of the election date to allow them to submit their lists. Unfortunately for them, the Electoral Court had already dismissed their applications to extend the deadline for submission on April 15th. The IEC had initially set the deadline for 5 pm on March 8th.
On Wednesday, the ConCourt heard the leave to appeal applications of the three parties. ACT’s legal representative, Advocate Gregory Amm, argued that the exclusion of their party’s candidates would deny at least 120,000 of their supporters their constitutional right to vote for the party of their choice.
Furthermore, it would also prevent ACT’s candidates from standing for public office. Amm contended that this exclusion rendered the elections unfair and called for the IEC to amend the election timetable and extend the submission deadline.
However, Amm clarified that ACT only sought a brief extension of “an hour or two” for the IEC to reopen its online portal and allow the submission of outstanding documents.
Postponing the elections would only be considered as a last resort. It is important to note that ACT appears on the IEC’s national and regional candidate lists, but it missed the deadline for inclusion in other regions.
Advocate Chris Loxton, representing the Labour Party, challenged the IEC’s claim that their online candidate nomination system functioned without any issues. He argued that the assertion that those who acted reasonably and with due diligence could comply with the requirements had a fatal flaw.
Loxton pointed out that 35.3% of unrepresented parties were unable to access the IEC’s online portal, indicating significant difficulties with the system. He emphasized that a 35% failure rate is not a small minority and that 65% is not a vast majority, undermining the IEC’s argument.
The IEC countered the parties’ requests for a postponement by highlighting the financial implications. Granting the postponement would cost the country nearly R600 million.
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