Pretoria – The Forum4ServiceDelivery (F4SD) said on Friday it has filed court papers in the Constitutional Court opposing the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC)’s bid to secure the postponement of the local government elections to early in 2021.
“Look at it this way, if fellow African nations like Congo, Cameroon and Zambia can proceed with elections, why can’t we? What is stopping us from holding these scheduled elections?
’’What the IEC should be doing is to put additional mechanisms (in place), for example people voting where there is enough ventilation,” F4SD president Mbahare Kekana told African News Agency.
“We can have these elections with mechanisms like people of different age groups voting on different days, as they are doing with vaccination. They can spread the voting over different days, and in terms of the Electoral Act, the IEC can also introduce more mobile voting stations.”
The IEC last month accepted the recommendation of retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke that it would not be safe to hold the national local government elections in October in the wake of an increasing number of Covid-19 infections and deaths.
The IEC was reacting to the Moneseke Inquiry report, which was presented to it on July 20, in which Moseneke strongly warned about holding elections while millions of people have yet to receive vaccination against the deadly virus.
Kekana said Moseneke’s inquiry was rushed and not comprehensive.
“That Moseneke commission’s report was not comprehensive. In our country, we have not seen a commission that has been in less than 55 days. Commissions in this country take a year, or two years.
’’That commission (led by Moseneke) was a makeshift of a commission. Why did they not institute that commission as early as January or last year in June so that we could discuss this matter for about six months and invite international experts? We could also invite those countries who have had elections under this pandemic,” said Kekana.
The F4SD leader said the IEC was implementing delaying tactics to buy time for the governing ANC.
“Right now, they know that the ANC is in tatters. The IEC has colluded with the ANC to delay the elections and that is why the ANC has filed papers to support the IEC. This is collusion,” said Kekana.
The Democratic Alliance has also opposed the IEC’s move, arguing that a constitutional crisis will be created if the Constitutional Court accedes to the IEC's application for the deferment of the local government elections to February 2022.
The ANC and EFF have supported the bid to defer the polls, but other political parties, including the Inkatha Freedom Party, have opposed the move, demanding that the elections be held as scheduled on October 27.
The urgent application by the IEC for the elections to be postponed to February next year will be heard in the Constitutional Court on August 20.
African News Agency (ANA)