By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Electoral Court on Thursday reserved its judgment in ActionSA’s application over the absence of its name from the ballot paper for the upcoming local government elections.
ActionSA lodged urgent papers with the Electoral Court earlier this month in an effort to set aside the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC’s) decision to exclude its name from the ballot paper for the municipal elections.
The court’s chairperson Judge Boissie Mbha – who presided over the proceedings – reserved judgment in the matter after he heard a day of arguments from ActionSA’s counsel, as well the IEC.
Mbha,noted the urgency of ActionSA’s application, saying the judgment would be delivered “as quickly as possible” with the elections around the corner.
“I’m sure [the counsel] will well appreciate that this is not quite a straightforward case and it’s urgent. We have to decide as quickly as possible, but we will do our best,” he said.
Mbha then added: “Depending on how it goes we might perhaps choose to grant an order if we are in agreement and reasons may follow later.”
The party cited a 2019 study compiled by the Human Sciences Research Council which showed that how political parties, logos and names, appeared on the ballot paper affected voter perception.
The study also stressed the need to make it easier for voters to identify their chosen political party of preference.
Last month, the IEC had omitted ActionSA’s candidates for its lists in Gauteng. The matter was quickly corrected by the IEC.
This was not the first dispute the party, headed by former Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba, had with the IEC.
When the party registered with the IEC in 2020, there were concerns raised over its logo’s similarity with another registered political party.
The IEC has urged the court not to rule on the matter, but rather request ActionSA to allow the municipal elections to go ahead, and rather lodge a ex post facto (after the fact) application should the omission of the name prove to have affected the party in the polls.
“The commission also lacks the capacity to comply with such and order [that compels it to reprint ward ballot paper to use stickers or stamps to add the omitted ActionsSA name],” said advocate Michael Bishop who represents the IEC in the matter.
He said the special vote was set to start on 30 October, hence the ballot papers would have to be at the voting stations by 29 October. This meant that any reprinting of the ballot papers would prove impossible.