‘No 9.3 million votes missing’ – IEC asks Electoral Court to dismiss MK party’s case with costs

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has heavily criticised the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party over claims of vote rigging in the 2024 elections.

The IEC filed its affidavit with the Electoral Court on Tuesday in response to the MK party’s bid to have the national and provincial election results declared not free and fair.

The MK party lodged its urgent application seeking to set aside the general election outcome and to direct President Cyril Ramaphosa to proclaim a new election date within 90 days.

The Jacob Zuma-led political formation cited “serious election irregularities” in their court papers filed this month.

MK party didn’t comply with Electoral Act

The IEC says it was “deeply concerning” that the MK party had made the “egregious” claims without “producing any credible and admissible evidence to support its allegations.”

“The applicant has misrepresented the actual election data and results – that over 9.3 million votes are unaccounted for in the declared election results – is patently false,” IEC chief electoral officer (CEO) Sy Mamabolo said in the answering affidavit.

Mamabolo pointed out that the MK party failed to comply with the Electoral Act in challenging the election results as the party was obliged to lodge an objection with the IEC.

He explained that such a challenge could only go to the Electoral Court for an appeal or review once the IEC communicated its decision on the objection.

“The applicant’s letter of 31 May 2024 is not an objection under section 55 that is subject to appeal under Section 55(1) of the Electoral Act. It did not comply with the prescribed requirements for an objection, as set out in Regulation 31 of the Election Regulations.

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“These include, amongst others, that the details of the objection and reasons for the objection can be contained in the form of a sworn statement or affidavit.

“There is no other procedure for dealing with the results of an election. The applicant has not followed the section 55 procedure.”

The IEC official informed the Electoral Court that the MK party instead has sought to avoid the consequences of its failure to comply with the relevant law “by dressing up its current challenge as a review”.

“There is no competent review in relation to the declaration of the results. The process is as spelt out above results-objections-appeal.”

He asserted that MK party’s application was “incompetent at law”.

“For this reason, it must be dismissed with costs.”

MK party missed deadline

Mamabolo argued that MK party even missed the deadline to challenge the results with the Electoral Court as the IEC declared the results on 2 June.

“It was therefore incumbent on the applicant to lodge its application by 5 June 2024 or failing which to show good cause for its delay.

“The applicant has done neither. The applicant only lodged this application two weeks later on 19 June 2024. The applicant has not given any explanation whatsoever for its delay.

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“In the absence of any explanation, the applicant’s non-compliance with the prescribed time period for lodging this application cannot be condoned.”

The IEC CEO further stated that the MK party’s application had no prospects of success.

“The applicant’s case is hopeless on the merits. I am advised that it is not in the interests of justice to condone an application that has no prospect of succeeding.

“Accordingly, whether construed as a review or appeal, the application should be dismissed for non-compliance with the time limits prescribed in the Electoral Court rules and as time-barred under rule 10.”

IEC leaderboard glitch

Additionally, Mamabolo addressed the two-hour system failure of the IEC’s leaderboard on 31 May, saying the technical glitch did not compromise the election results.

“Data capturing continued unaffected and no data was lost during this period. The functional system continued to operate unaffected.

“The results system also remained functional and uncompromised. There was only an interruption in the transmission of data to the leaderboard as a result of the flagging error in the reporting system.”

He also denied MK Party’s claim that the IEC “rushed” to declare the election results despite objections from various political parties.

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