By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) chairperson Glen Mashinini (right) and former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke. Photo Credit:Sarel van der Walt.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has announced it will reopen its candidate registration process for the 2021 local government elections after the voter registration weekend.
IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini made the announcement a short while ago at a media briefing in Centurion, Pretoria.
The announcement follows a special meeting of the IEC’s party liaison committee took place on Monday morning, following an emergency meeting by the commission itself over the weekend to discuss the Constitutional Court ruling, handed down electronically late on Friday.
The reopening of the candidate registration will allow parties to submit their candidates after they missed the IEC’s initial 23 August deadline to register candidates.
The ANC was among the parties that did not register its candidates for the upcoming polls. The governing party failed to register candidates in more than 90 municipalities.
The DA and EFF had vowed to challenge the IEC should it reopen the candidate registration process.
There is a view that Section 11(2) of the Local Government: Municipal Electoral Act of 2000 gives the IEC the discretion to re-arrange the elections timetable in the interest of a free election, which means it could allow a window for candidate nominations again.
Mashinini said the commission had already taken measures to ensure that it complies with the Constitutional Court’s orders even though no reasons for the decisions have been given yet.
“The commission is of the view that it must take all the necessary measures to ensure the elections are free and fair” in line with the Covid-19 restrictions, he said.
He also said the Constitutional Court order entitled the commission to publish amendments to the elections timetable as necessary, including “the need to set a new deadline for the candidate nominations”, which is preceded by the voter registration weekend.
A national voter registration weekend was to be held on 17 and 18 July; however, this was cancelled after a spike in Covid-19 cases. The IEC then adopted the Dikgang Moseneke report at the end of the month and initiated proceedings to postpone the election.
The Mosenke report found that South Africa’s elections would not be free or fair due to the chaos caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It recommended that the elections be postponed to no later than February 2022.
The voter registration weekend will be from 18 to 19 September. This will be for eligible voters to register or change their particulars on the national voters’ roll in time for elections.
He said a voters’ registration weekend was a “necessity” and would offer all eligible citizens to register or update their details at their local voting station.
“The commission urges young people, in particular, to take advantage of this opportunity register and eventually to participate in voting,” Mashinini said.
He said the IEC also met Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and informed her that she could proclaim the elections date on 20 September, but to announce the date sooner than that so that the commission could plan.
On Friday, the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) dismissed the IEC’s application to postpone this year’s municipal elections to February 2022.
The apex court ordered the commission to prepare for an election to be held before 1 November as well as announce an election programme leading up to the polls.
Dlamini Zuma, is expected to announce a new date for the elections between 27 October and 1 November.