The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) may have to reprint ballot papers for wards affected by the African National Congress (ANC)’s court challenge if the Constitutional Court rules in the party’s favour.
The apex court reserved judgment this week after hearing oral arguments in the matter.
Briefing the media in Centurion, the IEC said it was awaiting the court’s decision and would have no choice but to reprint the affected ballot papers should the ruling go against it.
IEC deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi confirmed that a significant proportion of the ballot papers had already been printed and could have to be discarded if the court ruled in favour of the ANC.
“The contingency plans are in place to give effect to the Constitutional Court’s decision. Allied to that will also be the costs related to implementing the court’s ruling.
“We’ve indicated that 66% of ballots have already been printed, because we have a finite period of 21 days within which to print those ballots. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of the ballots implicated in the ANC case have already been printed, which means that if we were to include the ANC candidates in those municipalities, those printed ballots would represent significant costs that we could never recover,” said Sheburi.
Should the court rule against the commission, other political parties that did not approach the courts but experienced similar technical difficulties when submitting their candidate lists could also benefit from the outcome.
Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said the court challenge demonstrated the vibrancy of the country’s democracy.