Electoral Court dismisses Labour Party claims that IEC online system reason for missing candidate list deadline
It's one of four political parties, and a prospective independent candidate, who on Monday had their challenges to the candidate list deadline dismissed by the Electoral Court.
Picture: Eyewitness News
Editor's note: This article has been updated
CAPE TOWN - The Electoral Court has dismissed claims by political newcomer, the Labour Party, that the Electoral Commission (IEC)'s online system is the reason it could not field all its candidates across the various elections on time.
Instead, the court has called out the party for leaving candidate registration to the last minute.
The court's judgement, however, was not unanimous, with the decision made by three of the five judges involved. The minority judgement supported some of the argument’s advanced by the Labour Party.
It’s one of four political parties, and a prospective independent candidate, who on Monday had their challenges to the candidate list deadline dismissed by the Electoral Court.
The court has noted that the Labour Party managed to upload candidates to participate in the national ballot but stated that the failure to submit candidate lists for the National Assembly's regional ballot and the provincial legislatures is of its own doing and not the commission's.
It further ruled that the Labour Party only captured its first candidate 36 minutes before the 5pm deadline on 8 March 2024.
The Labour Party maintains that the commission was late in the filing of its answering affidavit and failed to launch a condonation application in time. Consequently, the commission should have been barred from filing its answering affidavit. It further argued that a defective condonation application was only filed on 9 April 2024.
The court has also noted the party had been registered a month earlier and could have started the submission process sooner.
It says the Electoral Commission's decision not to amend the election timetable is patently rational.
The court has also dismissed a similar complaint from the African Congress for Transformation (ACT).
It says the party didn't report any complaints about the online system to the commission until 2pm on deadline day.
The complaints of the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats and the All African Allied Congress have also been dismissed, with the court saying it could find no difficulty in using the online system or complying with the IEC's deadline.
Prospective independent candidate Sipho Malapane’s application has also been dismissed, with the court saying he did not timeously ask for assistance in using the system.
The Labour Court has subsequently issued a media statement outlining it’s intended review application in respect of the ruling.