A former ANC councillor in Vryheid, Andre Lotter, has mounted his second legal challenge against the IEC.
|||Durban - A former ANC councillor in Vryheid, Andre Lotter, has mounted his second legal challenge against the Independent Electoral Commission, asking that all five of its commissioners be removed from office.
Lotter argues in court papers that the IEC has “forsaken its primary mission of ensuring free and fair elections”, and therefore only dismissals will suffice.
He cites the five commissioners, Pansy Tlakula, Terry Tselane, Thami Makhanya, Bongani Finca and Raenette Taljaard, as those who should lose their jobs.
“The fact that the IEC doesn’t take the repression of electoral fraud seriously - which is a key piece in the arsenal of instruments that one may use to ensure free and fair elections - makes all five commissioners guilty of serious misconduct, and I beseech the honourable court to make the recommendation to the National Assembly to have them all removed from their posts as Section 194 of the constitution provides for.”
Lotter, a former councillor in Vryheid’s ward 22, gained prominence this year when he successfully convinced the Electoral Court to order not only the postponement of a by-election in the ward, but also an investigation into his claim of massive electoral fraud.
The IEC’s investigation into the claims led to 1 862 people being removed from the ward’s voters roll, which at the time was standing at 6 200 names.
Lotter argued that the IFP and the ANC had bused people into ward 22 and therefore should be sanctioned for their part in electoral fraud.
He also wanted the two parties to be barred from contesting the ward 22 by-elections again.
After the IEC investigation, Lotter approached the Constitutional Court, saying that the IEC had not fully complied with the order to investigate the allegations of electoral fraud, and that its investigation had been shabby.
The Constitutional Court referred the matter back to the Electoral Court, which has asked for a report on the investigation and a submission from Lotter.
Lotter states in the court papers filed this week that the IEC has shown no real intention of ensuring that those behind the electoral fraud in ward 22 are punished.
He says that if the IEC was serious about ensuring free and fair elections, it would have investigated thoroughly, not “stood by the sidelines as a passive onlooker”.
“No progress at all has been made by the SAPS,” he says.
“Not a single person has been indicted.
“The public protector has not been contacted by the Electoral Commission.
“It is one big vacuum.”
He says that after seven months of investigation, the IEC is no closer to holding a by-election, and therefore the IEC should be declared to be in wilful contempt of the court.
bheki.mbanjwa@inl.co.za
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