Electoral Court tells MK party to pay IEC’s costs as Zuma still insists elections were rigged

The MK party has renewed its efforts to challenge the 2024 national and provincial election results in the Electoral Court, despite incurring costs for withdrawing its initial application.

The party aims to nullify the May 29 general election outcome, alleging “irregularities,” and is pushing for President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce a new election date within 90 days.

MK party challenges 2024 results in Electoral Court

On 19 June, the MK party filed an urgent application with the Electoral Court, alleging election rigging, with claims that over 9.3 million votes were unaccounted for.

While the hearing was scheduled for 29 July, the party submitted a notice to withdraw the application, sparking objections from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).

The IEC informed the Electoral Court on 5 August that the MK party’s decision to withdraw its application, after the commission had already incurred substantial legal costs, reflected an abusive and delaying litigation strategy.

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

The commission highlighted that the party’s behaviour aligned with patterns seen in prior legal disputes between the two parties.

It further contended that any approval of the withdrawal should come with conditions, including punitive costs.

The IEC requested that the court bar the MK party from filing a similar case in the future without first obtaining court permission.

Electoral Court grants MK party’s withdrawal

On Friday, Acting Judge Esther Steyn described the IEC’s request as “self-evidently drastic” in her judgment.

Steyn concluded that barring the MK party from filing a new application would infringe on its right of access to justice, as stipulated by Section 34 of the Constitution.

However, the judge held that the party should bear the costs of the proceedings, as it was considered the unsuccessful litigant for withdrawing its application.

READ MORE: MK party to continue court bid to nullify election results

She ordered the MK party to cover the IEC’s expenses on an attorney-client scale.

“I have found that the MK party should be granted leave to withdraw its application. However, this withdrawal should not be conditional, as proposed by the first and second respondents.

“On the papers before me, I am not persuaded that the withdrawal constitutes an abuse of process yet.

“Indeed, the MK party’s conduct throughout these proceedings has been marked by several irregularities.

“These factors constitute a significant departure from normative litigation conduct and do warrant consideration of a punitive costs order,” the judgment reads.

Zuma promises to forge ahead with MK party fight

The MK party has since vowed to continue with the legal battle as hinted by former president Jacob Zuma.

During a media briefing on Friday, Zuma reiterated his belief that the elections were rigged.

“The case is coming, by the way, to show how much this party [got in the elections and] was number one.

“People did everything technically to change and make it number three, number four… [they] could even make number last. [The results are] not true.

“We said, when we spoke after the elections, [that] the damage is too big and that the IEC] must not rush to conclude that these are the parties that won. They continued, but unfortunately for them, the times have changed.”

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