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The Labour Party has written to Secretary of the Supreme Court of Appeal this morning. The letter marked as urgent, pleas with the SCA to ensure that the Labour Party’s application to the Electoral Court is set down as soon as possible.

The Labour Party served and filed its founding affidavit on 12 March 2024 and, while the IEC was supposed to serve and file its answering affidavit on 15 March 2024, it only did so close to midnight on 20 March 2024.

“We are disappointed in the IEC for filing its answer so late”, said Labour Party Secretariat Krister J van Rensburg. “It is clear to everybody that this is an urgent application, and any waste of time is totally unacceptable. The Labour Party is making the very reasonable request to be allowed extra time to upload the supporting documents via the online portal [of the IEC]”, Van Rensburg said.

On 17 April 2023, the State President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Electoral Amendment Bill into law and it became law in June 2023. Amongst other amendments, the main purpose of this amendment was to allow for independent candidates to be nominated for provincial and national seats.

However, as part of this process, it also set additional requirements for new parties to gain seats at provincial legislatures and the National Assembly. These requirements include allowing the IEC to set thresholds of 15% (fifteen percent) of the quota seats allocated to a particular geographic area, to be the threshold for unrepresented political parties to submit in order to contest the elections.

According to the IEC’s website, for the first time in 2024, voters will be handed three (3) ballot papers to vote on:

1) “for the election of the compensatory 200 members of the National Assembly, which is only contested by political parties on a closed list basis”;

2) “for the regional elections of the 200 members of the National Assembly. This ballot will vary from region to region, depending on which parties and independent candidates contest the relevant regional election. Only the names of political parties and independent candidates that have met the requirements to contest each regional election will appear on this ballot”; and

3) “for electing the members of the provincial legislature in each province. It contains the names of the political parties and independent candidates that have met the requirements to contest each provincial election”.

This meant that, in order to contest the 2024 national elections, unrepresented parties had to secure the names, ID numbers and signatures of 13 890 registered voters in order to appear on the national ballot and the regional ballots, and 47 886 names, ID numbers and signatures of registered voters if it wanted to appear on all nine (9) provincial ballots.

“As the Labour Party, we were able to get more than double the required names, ID numbers and signatures of supporters,” said Van Rensburg. “However, the IEC’s online portal and procedures involved in uploading the supporting documents, made it impossible for us to finish by the deadline [of 17:00 on 8 March 2024]. We were therefore in full compliance with the substantive requirements of section 27 of the [Electoral] Act, even though the [online portal] system let us down”, he explained.

Like many other political parties, the Labour Party faced difficulties with the unstable online portal of the IEC, and this led to it not being able to submit all supporting documents. This is also the focus of its case at the Electoral Court: the IEC’s online portal.

Parties that submitted evidence in support of the Labour Party’s application included the Land Party, the South African Royal Kingdom Organisation, the Active African Christians United Movement (AACUM), the People’s Revolutionary Movement (PRM), and the United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP). They all experienced similar problems with the online portal. 3

“Our case is not about the requirements themselves and neither is it about the timetable – rather it is about the method by which we are required to submit supporting documentation”, Van Rensburg said. “The [Electoral] Act speaks of a ‘prescribed manner’ by which this information should be submitted, and we are saying that this ‘prescribed manner’ is unmanageable and unworkable. We are very clear in our papers that it is this [online IEC portal] technology that let us down due to glitches and hanging, and not our failure to comply with the essence of the [Electoral] Act”, said Van Rensburg.

In its letter to the SCA, the Labour Party’s attorneys ask for the matter to be set down as soon as possible, citing that each “day that passes impacts both the Applicant and the Electoral Commission’s compliance with the timetable. It is respectfully submitted that having regard to the aforegoing, it is in the interests of the parties and the citizens of the country that the matter be heard and determined on an expedited an urgent basis”.

“We really hope that this letter focuses the court’s attention on the urgency of this matter being set down timeously”, said Van Rensburg. “We are extremely concerned that the delays caused by the IEC up to now, combined with the upcoming public holidays, might lead to difficulties in the court granting us the relief we pray for”. “The fact that we have gained more than double the support required by the Act, shows you that there is significant voter interest in the Labour Party, and excluding us on the basis of an untested online platform might very well threaten the freeness and fairness of these elections”, Van Rensburg concluded.

Issued by Labour Party of South Africa