Friday | September 3, 2021
The Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that the local government elections must proceed as planned and pronounced. As a result, this year’s municipal voting must be held on any day between Oct. 27 and Nov. 1, 2021, the court ordered.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa went to court as one of the options from the former Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke’s recommendations that it was not reasonably possible or likely that local elections in October would be free and fair, as required by the Constitution.
The Moseneke report was commissioned to probe the feasibility of holding free and free elections in the throes of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Lack of consensus among political and interested parties occussioned the inquiry which was eventually released its report on July 20, 2021. The report recommended that these local polls should be held early next year, on the date which should not go beyond February 2022.
The other option that the Moseneke report recommended would take a parliament exercise to amend the constitution for postponement to be effected. This was going to take longer and the threshold to meet constitutional requirements was higher. Eventually, it was deemed a complicated issue, thus, less desirable.
Indeed, there were sections of communities and interested parties that felt that there was no need for such an approach. They reasoned that it would set a wrong precedent. Furthermore, they cited other countries – Zambia, United States, Uganda, to cite a few – which embarked on elections recently in Covid-19 climate.
The Constitutional Court ruling comes as a slap on the IEC, the applicant, that sought to postpone the scheduled date due to unyielding and relentless Covid-19 conditions.
On April 21 this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared October 27 as the date to hold the 5-year cycle of municipal elections in South Africa.
As matters turn out in court today, the IEC has less than two months to organize and execute the forthcoming local government elections within the limitations of Covid-19 regulations.
In this regard, the court directed that, where permissible, the Commission should further hold a voter registration week prior election day to accommodate voters and accord them an opportunity to change their particulars, the court ruled.
This ruling may have caught many stakeholders off guard. Emboldened by the Moseneke report and public sentiments, the IEC warmed up to the idea of postponement; hence steps taken to approach the apex court. But now it must deliver credible elections no matter the time constraints.