Postponement of elections would cost over R500 million, says IEC

Source: EWN Traffic
Author: Bernadette Wicks

JOHANNESBURG - The Independent Electoral Commission of South (IEC) says it would cost more than half a billion rand to postpone the upcoming elections.

This is contained in papers that the IEC has filed in the Constitutional Court, opposing an application from the newly formed Labour Party of South Africa aimed at pushing back the elections among other things.

The Labour Party argues it couldn't meet the deadline to submit its candidate list because of technical issues with the IEC's online portal.

The application is set to be heard on Wednesday, along with two others from Ace Magashule's African Congress for Transformation and the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats, which are on the same wavelength.

Broadly speaking, the parties all want the submissions window re-opened. But the Labour Party has gone a step further.

Their first port of call was the Electoral Court which dismissed their cases on 15 April.

The Labour Party said by now certificates had already been issued to candidates, adding that an extension to the deadline wouldn't be enough.

The party further wants the elections postponed and the court to order the IEC to request as much from President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The IEC, however, says while this would in fact be the inevitable result if the submissions window was reopened, it would be "immensely costly" and come with a price tag of R587 million.

Its position is that the online portal did not malfunction and that the "similarly situated parties were able to comply".