Pretoria - The EFF in the City of Tshwane today asked the SAPS at Pretoria Central police station to investigate the 69 DA councillors implicated in a possible violation of electoral laws by compromising their identities during a secret ballot election for a municipal council speaker on Monday.
Regional party leader Obakeng Ramabodu said the conduct of the implicated councillors must be probed for choosing to undermine the Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) by making use of numbers to mark their votes, instead of crosses.
“The IEC is very clear that there is no vote that must be a voter identification. In this case the DA chose to give their councillors numbers from 1 to 69 and they had told their party agents to make sure that they check those numbers,” he said.
He expressed concern that the said councillors “go about boasting that their caucus is intact because all 69 councillors voted”.
EFF Tshwane leader Obakeng Ramabodu speaks outside Pretoria Central police station after the party asked the SAPS to investigate the 69 DA councillors implicated in a possible violation of electoral laws by compromising their identities during a secret ballot. @EFFSouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/Ng38YM6V4x
“Why do we have secret ballots if people can undermine the secrecy of voting? They have committed a crime,” he said.
He said the IEC was supposed to be the one reporting the alleged crime at the police station “because the IEC’s right was being undermined and its integrity undermined by the DA councillors”.
Ramabodu said the EFF found out from the IEC and that those liable for breaking the electoral Act might face up to 10 years imprisonment or a fine.
“We are not going to leave them. We are not going to let them undermine this country because of their colours. We are going to hold them accountable,” he said
The DA, on the other hand, has said the multi-party coalition lodged a dispute with the IEC regarding the election outcome.
The party also said it was consulting with its lawyers and coalition partners regarding a possible legal challenge against election results.
DA caucus leader Cilliers Brink said the electoral law in the country was clear that a voter can either use a cross, a circle, a number or an initial to indicate his or her intention to vote for a particular candidate.
The IEC’s decision to discard and declare 69 ballots as spoiled cost the multiparty coalition bloc a position of council speaker after their preferred candidate Kholofelo Moorodi lost to a sole African Transformation Movement councillor, Mncedi Ndzwanana, who was backed by the EFF and ANC.
Brink said the IEC erred in its decision to discard DA councillors' votes as spoiled, saying such a decision was reviewable.
Ramabodu said:“We are happy that they have asked for legal advice from their legal team and their legal team have told them that there is nothing; there is no way you can go to court,” he said.
The EFF’s move followed a comment by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi that the DA councillors in Tshwane must face the music for breaking the law by using numbers instead of crosses to vote during the election of a new council speaker through a secret ballot.
He said he asked Gauteng MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Mzi Khumalo to see if there was no action that could be taken against the implicated councillors because “they have broken the law” in trying to bypass the IEC new voting format.
Pretoria News