SA Municipal Elections Can Proceed Despite IEC Failure, Says ConCourt

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled that the Independent Electoral Commission failed to uphold section 16 of the Electoral Act – which deals with providing voters’ addresses – and erred in its fundamental mandate to safeguard the freeness and fairness of elections, but has said the 3 August elections can go ahead.

The Democratic Alliance, one of numerous parties in the case – which also included the ANC and the IFP – said the ruling was a victory for voters and a wake-up call for the IEC.

The decision stems from the 2013 by-elections in Tlokwe, North West, whose results were challenged. The  case centred on the fact that the segment of the voters’ roll that had been received from the IEC did not reflect any voters’ addresses. The ConCourt delivered judgment on 30 November 2015 setting aside the by-elections and ordering they be held afresh.

One of the conditions was that “the [IEC] is obliged to obtain sufficient particularity of the voter’s address to enable it to ensure that the voter is at the time of registration ordinarily resident in that voting district”.

There were 4,160 names lacking addresses in the Tlokwe by-elections.

In its appeal to an earlier ruling that addresses be furnished, the IEC said that countrywide the voters’ roll lacks a total of 12,246,571 addresses. It said that if its appeal did not succeed in Tlokwe, it would be obliged to provide all 12.2 million addresses, where available, in respect of the upcoming municipal elections.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday, “The duty of the Electoral Commission to record all the available addresses of voters on the national common voters’ roll for the purpose of the August 2016 local government elections is, except for the Tlokwe Local Municipality, suspended.”

It further ruled other measures that must be taken by the IEC by 2018 in order to obtain the addresses of voters.