- ActionSA has approached the Electoral Court on an urgent basis to review an electoral commission decision to exclude its name from the ballot paper for the 2021 municipal elections.
- The party wants the commission to destroy ballots that have been printed without its name and have new ballots printed.
- The commission has until the end of the day on Wednesday to indicate whether it will oppose the application or not.
ActionSA has filed an urgent Electoral Court application for the review of an electoral commission decision to exclude its name from the ballot paper for the 2021 municipal elections.
On Monday, the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) issued a statement in response to ActionSA's objection, saying that "the absence of the abbreviated name of ActionSA on the ward ballots is because, at the point of registering as a party, ActionSA elected not to register an abbreviated name or acronym".
However, in court papers, ActionSA said: "The Electoral Act does not require a party to have an abbreviated name and the commission bases its decision on the fact that ActionSA did not register an abbreviated name even though the Act does not require a party to have an abbreviated name."
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The registration of political parties is governed by Section 15 of the Electoral Commission Act, which gives political parties the option of electing to use or not to use an abbreviation.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said that in terms of Section 15 of the Electoral Commission Act, "the abbreviation itself should not consist of more than eight letters". He added that "ActionSA's name was purposefully chosen by its founding members in order to avoid unnecessarily using an abbreviation when referring to the party".
"This election by ActionSA should not be used against it, particularly in circumstances where to do so would amount to an infringement of its constitutional rights," Beaumont said.
He also said that "at no point was ActionSA advised that by electing not to register an abbreviation, the implication would be that our name would not appear on the ballot paper".
READ MORE| 'ActionSA elected not to register abbreviated name or acronym', IEC responds to party
"The application form for registration completed by ActionSA cannot be construed as waiving our right to have the party name on a ballot paper."
He added that that although the Local Government: Municipal Electoral Act allowed the commission to determine the design of the ballot paper, it did not mean "the commission is free to design a ballot paper that does not include the name of the party" because "the name of the party is the most crucial identifying feature of the party".
Beaumont said "the importance of the name of the party on the ballot is acknowledged by the commission itself in a report compiled in conjunction with the Human Sciences Research Council.
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"Through discussions with a series of focus groups, the report records that the focus group consulted [was] in agreement that the party name should be on the ballot paper and not just the party's acronyms. A ballot paper must be designed in a manner that allows a reasonable voter to give proper effect to their right to vote. Inherent in that ability is the ability to identify their party of choice by name.
"In the case of ActionSA, this bears emphasis. ActionSA is a new party. Although it has been actively campaigning since 29 August 2020 it cannot be expected that a voter will be able to distinguish the party merely from its logo alone, particularly in relation to longer established parties. It therefore cannot reasonably be contended that a ballot paper that omits the name of a political party gives full effect to the right to vote and consequently, the commission cannot be seen to have discharged their duty of ensuring free and fair elections if they insist that a ballot paper which omits a party's name is correct in law".
The party said the matter was urgent because "the commission has informed ActionSA that it has begun the printing of the ballot papers which will be used during the 2021 municipal elections, which will be held on 1 November 2021".
"This application is also urgent as there is a real apprehension that should the ballot papers be utilised during the elections, ActionSA's constitutional right to participate in and contest the 2021 municipal elections will be infringed. For these reasons this application has been brought one day after the decision has been made," the court papers read.
The IEC has until end of business on Wednesday to indicate whether it will oppose the application or abide by the court's findings.
Should it choose to oppose it, the IEC will have until 12pm on Thursday to file opposing papers.
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