The ANC approached the Northern Cape High Court on Monday to obtain an urgent interdict to prevent a by-election from taking place in Ward 2 in Kai !Garib Municipality.
THE ANC approached the Northern Cape High Court on Monday to obtain an urgent interdict to prevent a by-election from taking place in Ward 2 in Kai !Garib Municipality, following the death of an ANC ward councillor prior to the local government elections in November last year.
Special votes and home visits are supposed to be cast on Tuesday, with general voting being scheduled for Wednesday.
The ANC’s Regina Lipinge, the EFF’s John Thomas Pondala and Peter Francis Bailey of newcomers Hope for the Future have registered to contest the ward.
A total of 2,752 voters are expected to take part in the by-election.
ANC provincial secretary Deshi Ngxanga said on Monday that the names of voters who were not registered in the ward appeared on the voters roll.
“We have noted with deep concern that with the voter registration period the opposition fraudulently and unlawfully registered voters from the neighbouring wards. We do not wish to name any party but all fingers point in one direction,” said Ngxanga.
He stated that they had detected between 700 to 1,000 “fraudulently registered voters”.
“This fraudulent activity erodes the democratic principle of free and fair elections and cannot be left unchallenged. The manifestation of this fraud is so grotesque, that in one household which is a two-room house, a kitchen and one bedroom, there are 73 special voters electronically registered.
“In another instance, 11 voters are registered on an address where the owner of the house does not have knowledge of who the people are.
“These are just a few instances of these reckless fraudulent activities by the opposition. The ANC has been in constant engagements with the local Electoral Commission (IEC) office.”
Ngxanga added that since the incident was reported to the IEC, “not much” had been done to resolve the matter.
“The IEC conceded that there are concerning instances of voter fraud, which they undertook to investigate. Since not much has been forthcoming to resolve the current voter fraud, we have opened a criminal case of electoral fraud with the South African Police Service. We have fine-combed the voters roll and have acquired affidavits from homeowners and some fraudulently registered voters.”
Ngxanga said that the ANC had instructed its lawyers to interdict the by-election and to enforce the removal of all fraudulent names on the voters roll.
“We apologise to the voters of Ward 2 for this inconvenience, but the ANC commits to uncompromisingly protecting their right to free and fair elections.
“We want to also thank the residents of Ward 2 for overwhelmingly voting for the ANC during the 2021 local government elections.”
IEC provincial electoral matters manager Elkin Topkin stated that they would not oppose the interdict.
“We will abide by the court of law,” added Topkin.
He indicated that they had “red-flagged” a number of voters.
“The ANC reported 30 names whereupon another 40 and another 70 names were added to the list. Upon investigation, we found it appears that around 350 voters were registered without the consent of the voters. We red-flagged these voters and should these voters arrive at a ballot they will be taken aside, where their details will be verified. If there are any irregularities, that voter will not be permitted to vote.
“If there are sufficient grounds to prove that there was a malicious intent to influence the outcome of the elections, criminal charges will follow. Political parties can also object to the outcomes.”
Topkin did not believe that the number of questionable registrations would have a drastic impact on the outcome of the by-election.
