THE newly enacted electoral law is causing a headache to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and different political parties.
The IEC has found itself facing in one court case after another since the election date proclamation was announced.
The Section 27 of the Electoral Act states that in order to contest the 2024 national elections, unrepresented parties and independent candidates in the National Assembly or provincial legislatures had to secure the names, ID numbers and signatures of 13 890 registered voters in order to appear on the national ballot and the regional ballots.
The Act also states that parties also needed to secure 47 886 names, ID numbers and signatures of registered voters if they wanted to appear on all nine provincial ballots.
The Electoral Amendment Bill was passed by the National Assembly (NA) in February 2023.
Speaking to Daily Sun, IEC said it is currently dealing with 10 cases including Team Sugar and the African Economic Freedom (AEF), breakaway parties from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
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Most parties have taken the IEC to court, claiming that the online portal of the commission was unstable during the upload period, and they couldn’t submit all the names.
Land Party, the South African Royal Kingdom Organisation, the Active African Christians United Movement (AACUM), the People’s Revolutionary Movement (PRM), and the United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP) all claimed they experience similar problems with the online portal.
Another court case that the IEC had to deal with was former president Jacob Zuma’s eligibility to be on uMkhonto Wesizwe's candidate list.
The commission said in this year’s election they have seen an increase in political parties, compared to previous elections years.
“There's an increase, and it does relate to the compliance with the newly enacted provisions of section 27 of the Electoral Act,” said IEC spokeswoman Kate Bapela.
Speaking on the budget for the case, IEC said it makes provisions for litigations but currently they don't have the final invoice for these matters as they're still before the Electoral Court.
