The MK party, led by former president Jacob Zuma, believes it was robbed in the 29 May elections, and attempted to halt the declaration of the result as free and fair on 31 May. Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) wants the electoral court to dismiss the renewed electoral court challenge to the outcome of the 29 May national and provincial elections by the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party or delay it pending the outcome of a determination and payment of costs in its earlier attempt to set aside the election result, which it withdrew.
The IEC argues that the application brought last month by former president Jacob Zuma’s party is “vexations and an abuse of court process” because the party is aware that its existing matter before the court regarding the election outcome has not been concluded.
Last week the IEC legal team wrote to the court to lodge an in limine objection to the MK party application, asking the court to rule that it cannot be heard until the earlier matter is concluded.
The MK party had approached the court last month with what it argued is fresh evidence of widespread irregularities in the IEC’s data capture process during the counting and release of the election results.
It also presented a technical report which it said contained evidence that the integrity of the IEC’s data and systems could not be guaranteed and that the verification report provided by Deloittes could not be relied upon.
It asked the court to set aside the outcome of the elections and to order President Cyril Ramaphosa to order a re-run within 90 days of the conclusion of the case.
The party argued that it had withdrawn the matter earlier as it was not yet ready to go to court and that the IEC was attempting to censor it by trying to keep the matter from being ventilated before a judge.
Despite taking nearly 15% of the vote nationally and 45% in KwaZulu-Natal in its first election outing, the MK party believes it was robbed and attempted to halt the declaration of the result as free and fair on 31 May.
The IEC went ahead with the declaration and the MK party went to court, but withdrew as it was unable to collate evidence on time. The IEC in turn asked that court to rule on the case, rather than allowing the withdrawal, and to issue an order of costs against the MK party.
In its initial notice of intention to oppose the application, the IEC argued that it could not be heard because “there is pending litigation between the same parties based on the same cause of action and in respect of the same subject matter before the electoral court”.
“The institution of the application is vexatious and an abuse of court process as the applicant knows the court’s decision on the viability of the applicant’s withdrawal of its (earlier) application … is pending and that the costs of that application have not been determined or paid,” the IEC said.
The IEC and chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo have asked the electoral court to make a determination on their objection before any further pleadings in the application by the MK party take place.
