‘The IEC is the ANC in reverse’: Malema says ground forces must protect EFF votes
Political parties have appealed to the IEC to treat the ANC like any other party.
Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has been criticized by Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Malema, while addressing his supporters for the launch of the EFF's manifesto for the upcoming local government elections, warned that they should "keep a close eye on the IEC" as he accused the institution of being "ANC in reverse". He vowed that the EFF agents and volunteers would monitor the elections process, particularly the special votes, to ensure the IEC does not steal their votes.
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) has also expressed concern over the ANC's submissions. After the ANC appealed to the IEC to allow the party a chance to complete submitting their list of councillor candidates, MKP spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu criticized the IEC for being lenient to the ANC. He emphasized that the ANC cannot expect the country to accept their request without scrutiny and that the IEC cannot allow political parties and millions of voters to have confidence in an electoral process where deadlines become negotiable.
The ANC, on the other hand, accused the IEC's digital system of malfunctioning when it came to submitting the last batch of candidate nominations on 28 August. ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu appealed for the IEC to acknowledge and process the nominations that were received and stored before the deadline, rather than treating them as never submitted due to technical failures.
However, IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo firmly refused to extend the deadline for submitting councillor candidates, stating that the commission has never entertained a possibility to open the system for any one party.
Written by urgent.news from The Citizen's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
