The Democratic Alliance (DA) says a constitutional crisis will be created if the Constitutional Court accedes to the IEC’s application for the deferment of the local government elections to February 2022.
The party says it will approach the court to oppose the Commission’s application to postpone the election set for October to next year.
Federal Council chairperson, Helen Zille says the only way the constitution can be amended is through achieving a requisite majority in Parliament.
She says no court, including the Constitutional Court, has the power to amend or even temporarily suspend the Constitution because of its supremacy.
Zille says postponing the election will be a fatal mistake.
“If they were to accede to the IEC’s demands they will be in fact fundamentally violating their own role, which should be to defend the Constitution against all and it would create the impossible precedent of a small group of people being able to override the Constitution should they see fit to do so.”
In the video below Helen Zille speaks to SABC News:
The party’s representative at the IEC, Werner Horn says the Commission must move out of its comfort zone and adapt to new ways of doing things.
“It cannot be that in the midst of the pandemic when all of us have to adapt, the commission wants to maintain the same type of comfort zone in preparing for the elections that it has become used to, and it’s fair to South Africa.”
The IEC was unable to comment at the time of broadcast.
Date set to hear IEC
Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has set down the 20th of August to hear the Independent Electoral Commissions (IEC) application to have the October elections postponed.
Thursday is the last day for opposing affidavits to be filed. Political parties such as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) have since approached the Apex court to resist the electoral commission’s application.
Friday will be the last day for the commission to file a replying affidavit. The application will be heard virtually.
