By: Odwa Mkentane
Political analysts have warned that factional battles within the ANC could be behind the party’s failure to meet the deadline for submitting its candidate lists to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) for the upcoming municipal elections.
The deadline for candidate list submissions was last Friday.
In a statement on Monday, the ANC said it was unable to capture all of its candidates on the IEC’s system due to a technical glitch.
However, the IEC has rejected claims by the ANC that its website prevented the party from submitting its candidate lists for the upcoming municipal elections.
Speaking to VOC, governance and political analyst Sandile Swana says the election timetable and deadlines were communicated well in advance through public meetings and other engagements.
“The IEC has reminded us that they opened for submissions on the 21st of June this year and it would close on the 28th of August. So, if you like, you can call it 10 weeks just to submit the names, and all of us, including all political parties, have known for quite a long time that this is the year of the election.
“The timetable for every activity that the IEC would be involved in, which is time-sensitive, has been published.
“There have been public meetings, some of which I have attended, where these things were explained. So, your surprise is in keeping with saying, how could something be made so clear and so easy to do, and then somebody fails to do it?
“What the public now needs is an explanation as to why the ANC could be late and not submit its full list of names on time,” said Swana.
Swana added that the ANC in the Eastern Cape, which has been affected by the party’s failures, has been taken to court, and those legal battles are not over.
“We did warn that they might not even have a list to take to the IEC at the rate that they are going. So, the submissions that went in, you would be forgiven for saying that if there are any towns or wards in the Eastern Cape that submitted on time, they are probably the ones that were of a particular faction.
“And those that were of another faction that didn’t have full control of the administrative process were left out,” he said.
Photo: MyANC facebook page
