MK party to continue court bid to nullify election results

The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party says the withdrawal of its Electoral Court case against the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) is not an indication that it doesn’t have evidence of alleged vote rigging in the national and provincial elections. It will be lodging another urgent case.  

After weeks of claiming the elections were rigged, Jacob Zuma on Wednesday dropped the party’s court case to nullify the 29 May elections.

The MK party’s lawyers, JG and Xulu Incorporated, wrote to the Electoral Court notifying it that it would no longer be challenging the outcomes of the polls.

Fight not over

However, MK party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said the fight to declare the election null and void is far from over.

“We initiated the application to challenge the conduct of the Independent Electoral Commission to declare the national and provincial election results was in haste and violated the will of the people. We are still of the firm view that the election results are not credible, free nor were they fair.”

Ndhlela said in a bid to take the matter further, the party will “demonstrate the failure by the IEC to perform credible forensic audits of its election system.”  

ALSO READ: MK party withdraws case against IEC challenging election results

Further evidence

“The MK party has now gained further evidence of election irregularities and vote rigging. We have, however, also been advised by our legal counsel that there are procedural and technical issues that will be further brought to the fore to present such evidence before the application can be adjudicated upon by way of a new application to set aside the election results and the declaration by the IEC.

“The withdrawal is in no way an indication that we do not have a compelling case for the orders we seek. As the MK party, we are resolute and will be filing papers as per the answering affidavit which brought about further evidence which strengthens our case against the IEC,” Ndhlela said.

Ndhlela said the MK party’s “experts” are digging for more evidence.

“The experts that we have engaged continue to uncover further evidence of election irregularities that are so serious that it would be reckless to risk the application being dismissed on the basis of IEC’s technicalities,” Ndhlela said.

‘Urgent application’

“Given these circumstances and to further ensure that all the evidence in the possession of the MK party is presented before the court in a manner that enables a fair adjudication of the matter, we have been advised that the application should be withdrawn for now.

“In light of this, MK party will be filing a new court case with the necessary courts as a matter of urgency,” Ndhlela said.

The MK party lodged its urgent application in the Electoral Court seeking to set aside the 2024 general election outcome and to direct President Cyril Ramaphosa to proclaim a new election date within 90 days.

In its court papers filed in June, the Jacob Zuma-led political formation cited “serious election irregularities”.

In May, the IEC heavily criticised the MK party over claims of vote rigging after filing its affidavit with the Electoral Court.

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