The MK Party has requested that the electoral court reopen its challenge to the results of the May 29 national and local elections and order a new vote. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party has resumed its challenge to the results of the May 29 national and local elections in the Electoral Court, seeking an order for a new vote to be held.
The party served notice of the application on the South African Electoral Commission (IEC). Chief Electoral Officer Sai Mamabolo. Speakers of Congress and nine state legislatures. On Thursday, the President and the parties represented in the Legislature and Congress were present.
MK was the third-largest party in parliament, winning around 15% of the vote, effectively losing the ANC's majority nationally in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
It is also the largest party in KwaZulu-Natal, winning 47% of the vote on 29 May. The party, which is the official opposition party in both parliament and the KwaZulu-Natal provincial parliament, has been contesting the election results since the elections were announced on 2 June.
It urged the court to consider the matter urgently, arguing that it was in the public interest to issue an order declaring that the results of the poll were not as free and fair as the IEC had stated. I asked for it.
It is seeking an order forcing President Cyril Ramaphosa to suspend the IEC's declaration and to declare elections to be held within 90 days of the suspension of the results.
Furthermore, the application costs are to be borne by IEC and Mamabolo.
The party withdrew its initial application to suspend the results because it was unable to compile the analytical report it requested from the IEC results system in time.
On the other hand, rather than allowing the application to be withdrawn, the IEC sought to have the court adjudicate the application in its original form.
MK national organizer Nkosinati Nhleko, in an affidavit filed with the court, was highly critical of the IEC's actions, saying the Electoral Commission was “legally barred” from presenting an analysis of the results by the party. It said it sought to force a judgment on the application in order to erect a “barrier.” To the court.
“This application is not ready for hearing and our experts have taken time to process the information and evidence on which this application is based. It is reasonable to withdraw the application. but also for the sake of justice and the proper administration of justice,” Nhleko said.
“Our case needs to be supported by export reports and any attempt to force a hearing conditional on the original application will be prejudicial,” Nhleko said.
In addition to reviewing the analysis report, he said it must also be “stress tested” by other experts “until we are satisfied that our allegations of significant voter fraud are justified.” .
Nhleko said the national and local elections were “not free or fair” and that the process was “so bad that it undermined the entire election” and was “riddled with gross irregularities.” He said there was “no evidence that
His party would be “irresponsible” if it did not stick to its application and, in fact, is constitutionally obligated to do so because “the survival of our democracy depends on legal and credible elections.”
While their expert, Dr. Vusi Mhlongo, uncovered “massive voting fraud,” the IEC was unable to prove the integrity and accuracy of its systems and data, and on May 31 at 6:30 a.m. It was affected by 2 hours of downtime.
Nhleko said the IEC relied on the Deloitte report to prove the completeness and accuracy of the system, but the report failed to prove that.
“The report concludes that Deloitte’s report cannot be considered an assurance of any kind as to the integrity of the IEC system and the integrity of the data.Deloitte’s review was conducted without a thorough assessment of the system. It was an attempt by the IEC to prove the integrity of the system,” Nhleko said.
Mr Deriot's review was limited to some functional assessments and nothing more, and as a result the IEC's assurances were not supported by any concrete evidence, Mr Nhleko said.
The IEC's decision to change the reporting regime was “absolutely surprising” despite “the process being heated, tensions reaching boiling point and only hours left in the process” .
Nhleko said the IEC's decision to update the system was “highly questionable” and resulted in “serious inconsistencies in the reports generated by the electronic dashboard.”
Highlighting the discrepancies, Mr Nhleko said the total of valid votes from all 23,291 polling stations was “inaccurate” and that more than 15 million national and 16 million local ballots were included in the IEC's final tally. He said that it was
He said the number of votes counted at 73 polling stations was greater than the combined registered population of those stations, with a total of 10,983 votes added at polling stations across KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the North West.
Mr Nhleko said the inability and inconsistency to prove that the system and data were accurate and reliable had cast doubt on the IEC's ability to provide results and reliable results.
“It appears that the IEC does not want to be under scrutiny for these obvious voting irregularities and irregularities,” Nhleko said. “The attempt to enforce the order denying the withdrawn applications was an attempt to erect legal barriers to the publication of these figures.”
He said this was an illegal and deliberate attempt to “subvert the will of the people and the fruits of democracy.”
The findings contained in the expert's report showed that 46,576 polling station reports contained errors where the number of valid votes exceeded the number of votes cast, which had a “significant impact on the 2024 election.”
“It would have been difficult for even a lay observer to not detect these errors,” Nhleko said. “It is inconceivable and surprising that these were not discovered by the IEC.”
IEC did not respond to inquiries from. email and guardian At the time of writing.
