![]() Mogoeng said there was no reason why the Kham order was not complied with by the IEC. ![]() This means that the Tlokwe voters’ roll must include all reasonably ascertainable addresses of voters who registered after December 2003. However, the municipality of Tlokwe – whose disputed by-election gave rise to the case – was made an exception from the suspended order. ![]() ‘The Electoral Commission must by 30 June 2018 have obtained and recorded on the national common voters’ roll all addresses that were reasonably available as at 17 December 2003,’ the court ordered. This duty had been in place since December 2003 when the Electoral Act was amended, he said. It meant addresses that were ‘objectively available’ or ‘reasonably ascertainable’. Mogoeng said the IEC’s obligation in section 16(3) of the Electoral Act to provide copies of the voters’ roll to political parties, ‘which includes the addresses of voters, where such addresses are available’, did not mean those addresses that it had chosen to record or happened to have available. The IEC was given until June 2018 to get its house in order, notes a BDlive report. Handing down the judgment, Mogoeng said this was an ‘exceptional case’, warranting an extraordinary remedy in order to avoid a constitutional crisis. The IEC lost its case regarding its duty to record voters’ addresses, but the court suspended its order, clearing the way for the municipal elections. The court found the IEC's failure to record addresses of voters to be inconsistent with the rule of law and therefore invalid, but nevertheless ruled the elections could proceed without a complete voters' roll. #MHLOPE ZACC FREE#The Electoral Commission of SA's ability to deliver a free and fair poll has also been questioned. ![]() However, some concern has been raised that in effectively pardoning the unlawful voters’ roll, the court may have opened the door to challenges to the outcome of the elections. In what amounts to a compromise ruling – described by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng as an ‘extraordinary and unique’ decision made in the interest of democracy – the Constitutional Court this week found a way to allow the 3 August local government elections to go ahead, notes Daily News. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |