Change Party claims sabotage, but will wait for IEC investigation

After seven hours of deliberating what should come of a mistake on Change Party’s proportional representation (PR) ballot paper, leader Lesiba Molokomme said the party would not take it further. 

On Monday, it was discovered the Change Party’s name on the PR ballot papers for Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni metros did not appear next to their logo.

Instead was a party called Active Movement for Change, confusing voters. 

Molokomme at first demanded the elections be stopped, but later told SABC News he and his party decided to “move forward”. 

“Our decision was based on us understanding the situation is dire, and we cannot alter anything now. It happened, they [the Electoral Commission of South Africa] will learn and will investigate”.

He said this was despite the IEC technically “denying” Change Party voters their “full voting rights”.

“We decided there is a nation which is bigger than Change. South Africa needs to move forward”. 

He said when the logo was initially signed off on before the local elections, Change Party’s name and logo appeared perfectly. There was also nothing wrong with the ward ballot papers. 

As such, Change are viewing the incident as “sabotage”. 

“We don’t think we’re wrong in it being sabotage”. 

The party now awaits the findings of the sabotage claims, and are eager to know what went wrong.

The IEC has since offered its sincere apologies to the Change Party, and lauded Molokomme for prioritising the needs of the nation above the party’s.

“This nation can still find people with goodwill to deal with issues in an amicable way”, the IEC said in a joint statement on Monday night.

Change’s name was previously omitted from the ballot papers, but the party did not take legal action against the IEC after being advised by its legal team that there were no prospects for a win.

Compiled by Nica Richards. Additional reporting by Eric Naki