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An appeal by three political parties for the IEC to extend the deadline for parties to submit their candidate lists and possibly postpone the date of elections was dismissed by the Constitutional Court on Friday.
The effect of the judgment against the three was to exclude them from the ballot and prevent them from contesting in the upcoming national and provincial elections.
The court indicated it will provide reasons for the orders in due course.
The applications of the three parties; the African Congress for Transformation (ACT) led by former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, the Labour Party of SA (Labour Party) and the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats (AASD), was to argue that a judgment from the Electoral Court was an error and requested the IEC to amend the election timetable in order to allow them to contest in elections.
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The parties held the contention that the IEC’s online portal, referred to as the online candidate nomination system (OCNS) malfunctioned when they wanted to submit their parties’ candidate lists, which resulted in their failure to meet the IEC’s 8 March 2024 deadline.
They sought the IEC to extend the deadline for them to submit their party candidate lists, but the IEC refused, stating it had no discretion to condone noncompliance with the election timetable or make ad hoc exemptions to allow the applicants to submit their lists. The Electoral Court had found in favour of the IEC.
The IEC insisted that the OCNS did not malfunction and the reason the applicants failed to meet the deadline was that “they managed their time inefficiently and chose inefficient methods for submitting”.
The IEC further added that if the Constitutional Court granted the relief sought by the applicants, then it would not be in a position to deliver a free and fair election on 29 May and it would be required to reopen the opportunity for parties to make their submissions in terms of section 27 of the Electoral Act.
“It explained that doing so would result in new parties competing in the election, which would require the IEC to reprint ballot papers it had already begun to print.
"The IEC will then have no choice but to seek a postponement of the election. It submits that while postponement is possible, it will be at an immense cost, which the IEC estimates to be approximately R587 529 034,” it said.
READ: ConCourt hears appeal by three parties over late candidate list submission dispute
City Press tried to reach out to Magashule and ACT spokesperson Mohau Khumalo for their reaction on the outcome of the ruling, however, both phones rang unanswered.
While it is 19 days till the elections, independent political analyst Goodenough Mashego told City Press that although the Constitutional Court dismissed the appeal, this was a matter which could have worked out for the three political parties because there was precedence.
According to Mashego, in 1994, the IFP joined the electoral process very late and the IFP at the time, which was novice, was able to come up with a system whereby the IFP ended up being on the ballot.
He said:
"The process was open for a very long time. You can't have a glitch for five days; the IEC would have picked it. And the ConCourt is right to say, they can't open for three.
"Reopening the process, given the Electoral Amendment Act that allows individuals [as candidates], we might even have ended up with more parties saying they are coming in now.
"That would have been a very logistical nightmare because elections not only get held in South Africa, but also in embassies and other consulate overseas."
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Mashego said it would have been very difficult to manage this process, but if it had been another challenge which only involved the three parties participating - but not opening up the process - then from a logistical side, the IEC would have had capacity to manage them being added to the ballot.
He said:
"That will also contravene the Constitution because the mandate of the current Parliament expires on the 28 May, and you cannot go beyond 29 May. It will mean there is no government action in South Africa between that date and the election date."
