‘The IEC is the ANC in reverse’: Malema says ground forces must protect EFF votes

Political parties have appealed to the IEC to treat the ANC like any other party. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has come under attack once more, this time from the leader of the EFF Julius Malema who has accused the institution of being entangled with the ANC. Malema told his supporters at the launch of the Mpumalanga leg of his party’s manifesto for the upcoming local government elections that they should monitor the elections process with a sharp eye. “Fighters party agents look after the EFF votes, volunteers of the EFF look after the EFF votes, even during special votes, keep a close eye on the IEC because [the] IEC is ANC in reverse, the IEC must be monitored, they have been stealing our votes, no more, we are going to look after our votes,” said Malema. LIVE interactive map, latest news, multimedia and more! View Map MK Party expresses concern over ANC submissions This week the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) also accused the IEC of treating the ANC with kid-gloves. This comes after the ANC appealed to the Electoral Commission to give the party a chance to complete submitting their list of councillor candidates despite the deadline for this process having passed. The ANC claimed that it was unable to finish submitting its list of candidates online on 28 August because the IEC’s system experienced glitches on that day. However, the IEC has denied any technical faults. In a statement on Thursday, MK Party spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu said the IEC should not entertain the ANC appeal for a chance to finish submitting candidates. “The former liberation movement, the ANC, cannot expect the country to simply accept this explanation without scrutiny. And the IEC cannot expect political parties and millions of voters to have confidence in an electoral process where deadlines suddenly appear to become negotiable when the ANC is affected. “The MK Party will not allow the ANC and the IEC to play games with the electoral deadline. A deadline was set. The MK Party met it. Other political parties were required to meet it and the ANC must be held to the exact same standard,” said Mahlangu. ANC’s appeal to the IEC Meanwhile, the ANC has accused the IEC’s digital system of malfunctioning as its officials finished the last batch of candidate submissions on 28 August. “The ANC is not asking the Commission to condone a late nomination. We seek to add no name that was not on the OCNS by 17h00, and no amendment or reordering of any list. “We ask only that the Commission recognise and process what its own system received and stored before the deadline, rather than treat it as never having been submitted because of technical failures prevented the final confirmation,” said ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu in a statement this week. IEC refuses to re-open system In a media briefing this week, Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said the IEC will not extend the deadline for submitting councillor candidates. “The commission has never entertained any possibility to open the system for any one party, and as our statement indicated yesterday, the commission does not have an intention even at this point to open the system,” he said.