The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has responded to ActionSA’s claim that its name was intentionally omitted from draft ballot papers for Gauteng ward candidates.

The IEC said the party had elected not to register an abbreviated name or acronym when registering.

Ward ballot papers usually show the name of the candidate, a photograph of an independent candidate, the party’s logo and the registered abbreviated name of the party.

“ActionSA, in their documents in which they applied for registration as a political party, and which must be publicly lodged in terms of the regulations, responded with a “Not Applicable” in the space where the political party was required to indicate its abbreviated name,” the IEC said.

The party went further to indicate that “there is no abbreviation of the name of the party” as part of its application documentation, the IEC added.

On Monday, ActionSA said it would head to court after the IEC failed to meet the party’s 10:00 deadline to add ActionSA’s name to ballot papers for the upcoming local government elections.

The IEC said that the insinuation that the Commission is acting without due impartiality is “without foundation and mischievous”.

“The onus to choose party identifiers rests with the political party and not the Commission and the scheme in the ballot design has been part of our electoral management practice since the inception of democratic local government in 2000,” the IEC added.

The Commission confirmed that following candidate nominations, meetings of the local Political Party Liaison Committees were held so that political parties and independent candidates participating in the November 1 Municipal Elections could sign off on the draft ballot paper. 

There are 14 other political parties that appear on the various ballot papers without abbreviated names.