Johannesburg – South Africa’s electoral commission on Monday unveiled a timeline for controversial local elections after the country’s top court snubbed its bid for a postponement to 2022 because of Covid.
The Electoral Commission (IEC) readjusted the schedule for the municipal vote, initially set for October 27, and extended the candidate registration process.
That decision is widely viewed as a lifeline to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) after it failed to register hundreds of candidates before the August 23 deadline.
“The commission has already taken measures to ensure that it complies with the orders of the Constitutional Court,” IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini said, noting that the vote would take place by November 1.
“Amending the timetable to reopen (candidate) nominations is reasonably necessary in the circumstances,” he added.
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The IEC in July filed a court application to postpone the election after an inquiry recommended a delay over concerns the Covid pandemic could undermine the fairness of the vote, particularly for smaller parties.
The ANC backed the request, which was vehemently opposed by its main rival, the Democratic Alliance (DA).
But on Friday the court dismissed the IEC application, ordering polls be held between October 27 and November 1.
Voter registration will take place over a weekend in mid-September, Mashinini said, after which an election date is to be fixed.
South Africa’s president and ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed the decision to reopen the registration of candidates.
“We believe this is in line with constitutional and legislative prescripts,” he said in a televised press briefing.
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The DA meanwhile vowed to “explore all legal avenues” to oppose the deadline extension.
ANC “cannot now demand a second bite at the cherry,” it said in a statement, noting that other parties had not been given that chance in the past.
In power since South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, the embattled ANC suffered an unprecedented drop in support during the last general election in 2019.
Its finances are in dire straits and staff have been on strike for almost two weeks over unpaid salaries, which slowed candidate registration for the upcoming poll.
Participants in the upcoming vote will elect councillors for more than 250 municipalities across the country.
It will test the ANC’s popularity in the face of splintering factions and deadly unrest that followed the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma in July.
The party fared poorly in the last 2016 local polls, losing the administrative capital Pretoria and financial capital Johannesburg to the DA.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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