Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa party has set ambitious targets after meeting the requirements to be on the ballot paper.
Maimane led a delegation of the party to the IEC offices in Centurion where they submitted piles of documents containing signatures of registered voters endorsing the party to contest the May 29 general elections.
Maimane said the party was targeting a million votes which he believes would make the party kingmaker in the event there’s no outright winner.
“We know we are doing. We’re going to criss-cross the country to talk to communities to ensure that we get the million votes we need to bring change in this country,” said Maimane.
“You would know that with about one comma 2 million votes you are way above ten percent,” he said of his party’s prospects.
He said the party will soon start talks with other political parties with the intention of entering into a coalition pact.
“We will be making announcements soon about talks with other parties with the view of forming coalitions. We want to work with all South Africans who want to fix the country,” said Maimane adding he didn’t “buy the MPC”( DA-led Multi Party Charter).
Maimane slammed the IEC accusing it of neglecting its responsibilities as an elections management body and in the process allowing established political parties to block new entrants by making laws in parliament that make it impossible for new parties and independent candidates to participate in elections.
“You would remember that when we were fighting this battle in the concourt and the IEC was asked to state its position and all it could say was that “we will comply”.
“It’s like in football if you allowed the teams, the players to make the rules and expect the referee to comply what if the rules are impossible to comply with,” asked Maimane.
Unrepresented political parties and independent candidates have until end of business on Friday to submit to the IEC their candidates lists, signatures of registered voters as well as deposits for any of the three ballot papers that will be used on the election day.