ActionSA wants court to postpone elections, or force IEC to include its full name on ballot papers

ACTIONSA has asked the full bench of the Electoral Court to postpone the upcoming local government election where it is contesting in several wards - or force the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to include its party’s full name on the ballot paper ahead of the November 1 polls.

This was the collective view submitted by the party in its court application before the full bench of the Electoral Court sitting in Joburg yesterday, in which it is contesting the IEC’s decision not to include the name ActionSA in their draft ballot paper ahead of the elections.

ActionSA, through its national chairperson Michael Beaumont, lodged the court application after failed attempts to persuade the IEC to include the full name ’ActionSA’ in the spot allocated for the abbreviation of political parties contesting elections.

Beaumont told the full bench, led by Judge Boycie Bam, that there were no regulations in the application forms that all the parties were required to submit the abbreviation of the party’s names in the ballot paper.

Counsel for ActionSA advocate Adilla Hassim SC argued that her client became aware of the omission of their party’s name on the ballot paper on October 2 this year, and wrote to the IEC’s deputy chief executive, Masego Sheburi, notifying him of the omission.

According to Hassim, the IEC was not helpful, which prompted them to lodge the court application on an urgent basis on October 5.

ActionSA was adamant that there was nothing in the regulations which required it to submit an abbreviation of its party’s name in the IEC’s application papers. “The most natural place to advise political parties of the consequences of not choosing an abbreviated version of its name would have been on that form,” Beaumont argued in his affidavit.

“On the Commission’s version, the consequence of not selecting an abbreviated name is that only the ActionSA logo would appear on the ward paper, and not its name. This information does not appear anywhere on the registration form.

“Advising political parties of the consequences of not selecting an abbreviated name would be the very thesis of the Commission’s mandate and powers. That is: it would ensure a free and fair election and promote conditions conducive to free and fair elections. Excluding a part of a party’s identification without forewarning is the antithesis of that,” Beaumont argued.

He was adamant that the IEC could have used the party’s name as an abbreviation, saying the name consisted of fewer letters than other mainstream political parties in the country.

But the IEC did not want to back down, arguing that parties in a similar situation, such as Patricia de Lille’s Good Party, also included an abbreviation in their application.

In his replying affidavit, IEC chief executive Sy Mamabolo said: “ActionSA does not have a registered abbreviated name or acronym. The reason why ActionSA does not have a registered, abbreviated name had nothing to do with the Commission.

“This is a choice which was made freely and with full appreciation of the consequences by ActionSA itself.

“The simple fact is that, had ActionSA given the Commission its abbreviated name, it would have been included in the ballot paper,” Mamabolo said.

He said ActionSA’s court application should be dismissed, saying it was an abuse, and that there were only a few weeks left before the elections.

“Within the time left, the Commission is simply unable to offer a practicable solution which will not result in the postponement of the elections in the affected wards. But there is no need for this relief to be contemplated - it was ActionSA itself that chose to give incomplete information to the Commission,” Mamabolo said.

Judgment was reserved.