The IEC has requested the Electoral Court to set down a hearing for the uMkhonto weSizwe party's vote rigging case for the party to present evidence of irregularities in the May 29 elections. The commission made the request in their responding affidavit following the party's withdrawal of their application to challenge the national and provincial election results.

ELECTION RIGGING ALLEGATIONS

The MK Party filled an application to have the May 29 general elections declared null and void and set aside, alleging that the elections were rigged and that they had evidence to prove their allegations. Vote rigging allegations emerged on May 30 when the IEC results dashboard crashed for two hours during the counting of the elections. 

MISREPRESENTATION OF ELECTION DATA AND RESULTS 

ZiMoja is in possession of the responding affidavits from the IEC, stating that the reason they want the matter to be heard is because the allegations are badly tarnishing the image of the commission. In their responding affidavit, the IEC also said that the notice of withdrawal was irregular. "It is an absolute imperative that the matter is ventilated publicly, and a final decision be made by the Electoral Court, at the very least to confirm whether the allegations against the electoral commission were made vexatiously and without just cause," the commission said in their responding affidavit. The commission's chief electoral officer, Sy Mamabolo, said the MK Party misrepresented the actual election data and results and that its central allegation that over 9.3 million votes are unaccounted for is "patently false". "When these egregious allegations were made, the applicant must have been aware of the absence of evidence to support them, but elected to make them, nevertheless. The only inference that can be drawn from this approach is that these allegations were made to inflame the passions of the public," the affidavit said. 

TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL

The MK Party said in a statement last week that the party delivered a notice to the Electoral Court withdrawing their application on July 3. The party said they were still of the firm view that the election results are not credible, free, or fair. "Our reasons, in part, which we will demonstrate in our pursuit to take the matter further, are the failure by the IEC to perform credible forensic audits of its election system. The MK Party has now gained further evidence of election irregularities and vote rigging. We have, however, also been advised by our legal counsel that there are procedural and technical issues that will be further brought to the fore to present such evidence before the application can be adjudicated upon by way of a new application to set aside the election results and the declaration thereof by the IEC," spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said in the statement.