Mashaba takes IEC to court over ballot paper omission

Following the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) failure to explain why ActionSA’s name was omitted from the ballot list, the party has announced that it is going to challenge the matter in Court.

Party leader Herman Mashaba said that this stood to limit chances for its supporters to identify its candidates.

The IEC’s final draft ballot papers for wards in Gauteng only contain the logo of ActionSA.

“In this regard ActionSA has concluded a meeting with our legal team, who are bewildered by the Commission’s refusal to remedy this issue,” the party said in a statement.

“They have affirmed our position that there is no legal basis for the Commission to refuse this request and are confident the courts will share this perspective.

“The perspective is that, by refusing to remedy this issue, the IEC is in breach of its overarching responsibilities to ensure free and fair elections – a critical component of which is ensuring voters are able to identify their political parties in various ways that include the party logo, party name, acronym and party leaders.”

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The party said that it was concerned by the approach of the IEC and “what seems like an effort to validate a decision to not assist in remedying this matter which directly relates to voters being able to locate their political party of choice”.

“Our brief time as a political party has been beset by issues with the IEC.

“We have been refused to register as a party and we have been ignored in our concerns about the Multi-Party Democracy Fund that the IEC openly advocates for people to exclusively fund political parties established in Parliament.

“The exclusion of our candidates from the candidate list published this week has been solved but not publicised and we must endure an arbitrary refusal to reflect ActionSA equally on the ballot papers.”