Municipal Elections: Action SA to take IEC to Electoral Court

Action SA says it will be taking the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to the Electoral Court after its name was removed from some ward ballots because it was not abbreviated.

Only Action SA’s logo appears and not its name, something the party expressed concern over, saying voters could potentially have a difficult time identifying its ward councillor candidates.

Herman Mashaba slams IEC

Action SA leader Herman Mashaba has opted to approach the court after the IEC refused to remedy the matter and instead blamed the party for not registering an abbreviated name or acronym.

“I can’t understand why the IEC believes that Action SA needed to have abbreviations. For what? It is their role as an independent electoral commission (If ever they had any misunderstanding) to pick up the phone. I’d like to assure South Africans that their [IEC] strategy to disrupt us from campaigning. It can only make us more determined,” Mashaba said.

Action SA’s Michael Beaumont says the law is very clear that the IEC had violated the party’s constitutional rights by removing its name from sections of the ballot papers.

“Now both this form and the (Electoral ACT) make it very clear that there is a possible scenario that some political parties will not have an abbreviation. How then could ballot papers be prepared in such a manner than an abbreviated name is left out and knowingly the commission would proceed to prepared ballot papers with certain political parties not enjoined,” Beaumont said.

Lead attorney in the matter Wandall Bloom says the IEC had until noon on Wednesday, 6 October 2021, to issue a notice to oppose or abide to the application.