GOOD party to challenge George by-election, says it was ‘stolen’

The Good party says it will challenge the George by-election results after it lost all three seats to the Democratic Alliance party and the Patriotic Alliance. The By-elections were held on 19^th July in wards 16, 20, and 27.

The highly contested by election was marred with allegations of voter registration fraud leveled by GOOD against the DA.

“We are deeply disappointed that the IEC has been unable, or unwilling, to detect suspicious voter registration patterns based on the unusually high number of new voter registrations for a by-election,” said GOOD secretary-general Brett Herron.

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COURT PETITION BY GOOD

The secretary general of the GOOD party stated that court papers were being prepared in order to challenge the results and seek sanctions against DA.

“GOOD will file that objection within the 48-hour period that section 65 of the Municipal Electoral Act provides for.,” Herron continued.

According to the GOOD party, online voter registration can be tampered with by political parties to re-register eligible voters in wards they do not live in. Herron claims that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is unable to detect this malpractice.

The Election results indicate that the DA won in Wards 16 and 27 while PA won in Ward 20. Richard Hector who is the GOOD councilor could not retain his seat in Ward 27. Hector had earlier left GOOD for DA but then returned to the party.

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RIGGING CLAIMS

Gayton McKenzie of the Patriotic Party also claimed that they were robbed of the win in Ward 16. “They stole Ward 16. We were robbed, those results are not a true reflection of the will of the voters of ward 16, the truth shall come out soon,” he posted on the PA’s page.

These allegations have been denied by the DA. On the other hand, IEC is yet to respond to these claims leveled by both the GOOD party and the PA.

The DA now holds 28 seats out of the 55 seats in George municipality. In 2021, the DA formed a coalition with the Freedom Front Plus party which has now improved their popularity in the area.

GOOD secured three PR seats and three ward seats, while PA acquired one ward seat in 2021. Currently, the GOOD has only three ward seats in the area.

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