Another new party to take IEC to apex court
YET another new contestant in the upcoming national and provincial elections will be challenging the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) at the Constitutional Court.
Build One SA (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane bemoaned the commission’s requirements for new parties having to garner 60 000 signatures in order for it to contest elections.
Recently, the Constitutional Court ruled to ignore an urgent application to challenge the number of signature requirements for new entrants.
Briefing the media outside the IEC offices in Pretoria yesterday, Maimane announced that while his newly-formed party had been able to meet the required signatures to contest the May elections, they planned to contest the requirement in the apex court because it was unfair.
He said the party collected more than 140000 signatures.
Maimane compared this year’s requirement to previous years, where only 1 000 signatures were needed for new parties to contest elections.
“We took the fight to the Constitutional Court about the signatures issue … and I’m grateful to say that Bosa was able to get over 140 000 signatures and is still counting.
“We say it’s unfair because it has been the signature requirement for new entrants only, while previously a new party needed only 1000 signatures of support to qualify to contest elections.
“However, the new Electoral Amendment Act has radically hiked this number up in a sinister effort to stymie competition and political choice,” Maimane said.
Meanwhile, it was reported earlier this week that a newly formed party, the Economic Liberators Forum (ELF), was gearing up to take on the IEC over a logo and the name similar to that of the EFF.
Led by Hulisani Mani, the party lost an appeal against the decision of the IEC to refuse to register them to contest the elections.
The commission barred the ELF’s attempt to register its party last week following a complaint by the EFF.
But the party was steadfast, saying it would be taking the IEC to the Constitutional Court over the matter.
The election list of candidates was expected to be handed to the IEC today. Maimane said Bosa would be fielding 120 candidates.
He heaped praises on his team, saying they were the right people to serve.
“This group has the right blend of skills, experience, diversity and passion to serve the people of South Africa with aplomb in legislatures across the country,” he said.
Maimane said the party would be submitting 19 lists to the IEC that comprised one national-to-national, nine regional-to-national, and nine regional-to-regional.