IFP goes to court to ensure all South Africans can vote

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) will be heading to the Constitutional Court on Wednesday in a bid to force the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to allow all voters, including those who do not have an address recorded on the voters’ roll, to vote in next year’s general elections.

IFP spokesperson Musa Ngobeni said his party’s position was consequent to the IEC’s application on May 21, 2018, seeking further indulgence from the Constitutional Court after failing to secure all the addresses of all voters on the roll before the cut-off date of June 30, 2018.

“Led by Advocate Kemp J Kemp, the IFP will argue that no voter should be refused their right to vote purely on the basis that they do not have an address recorded on the voters’ roll.

“The IFP will further argue that the IEC ought to have taken significantly greater steps to record the addresses for voters since the order was handed down on 14 June 2016, and its failure to do so means that the IEC is the author of this current predicament,” Ngobeni said.

In the 2016 order, which was instituted by independent candidates who contested the outcomes of by-elections in Tlokwe, North West, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng gave the IEC 18 months to fix the defects on the voters’ roll.

Mogoeng said the election body’s failure to record all available voters’ addresses on the voters’ roll was invalid.

Ngobeni said the IEC failed to ensure that all voters’ addresses were captured on the period given by the order.

“The IFP’s submission before the court will be on remedy. In that context, the party will argue that there is a simple and innovative solution to the IEC’s predicament in that the voters whose names are on the voters roll but without addresses on the roll will be allowed to vote after they furnish the IEC with their addresses,” he said.

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