The Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has filed an application in the Electoral Court asking for more time before it can hold by-elections at the dissolved Metsimaholo council in the Free State.

The IEC said it needed time to complete the task of updating the voters’ roll to include addresses of all voters in the municipality’s wards.

“This is in line with the Constitutional Court ruling of 14 June 2016 which ruled that the voters’ roll for all by-elections after the 2016 Municipal Elections must contain addresses for voters where available and must ensure that voters are placed in the correct ward and voting district,” the IEC said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Work is already underway in updating the voters’ roll for Metsimaholo, including engaging with the municipality and providing all political parties with a copy of the previous voters’ roll and lists of voters without addresses… for assistance in obtaining addresses and identifying any incorrectly registered voters.”

The Free State provincial government dissolved the Metsimaholo coalition municipality in July after it failed to adopt its 2017/2018 budget. This led to the provincial government appointing administrator Moses Moremi to run the municipality until new by-elections are held by the end of November this year.

No political party won the majority vote to head Metsimaholo after last year’s fiercely contested local government elections.

The African National Congress (ANC) got 19 seats, the Democratic Alliance (DA) 12, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) eight, the Metsimaholo Community Association got two, while the Freedom Front Plus got one seat.

Problems at the Sasolburg council started when MCA mayor, Sello Hlasa, defected to the ANC, having appointed ANC members to key positions in the council. The DA and EFF vowed to remove Hlasa, leading to the collapse of the council.

The IEC was supposed to hold by-elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the council, as per electoral rules.

At least 22,000 voters out of 78,000 registered voters in Metsimaholo do not have addresses captured on the voters’ roll, said the IEC.

“Given the extremely closely contested 2016 municipal elections in the municipality and the imperative for free and fair elections, the Electoral Commission requires additional time to bring the relevant segment of the voters’ roll to the standard established by the Constitutional Court pertaining to voter addresses,” the IEC said.

“The Electoral Commission will await the decision of the Electoral Court and will issue further advisory communications to all stakeholders, including political parties, candidates, voters and the media in due course.”