Opposition parties in the KSD municipality in the Eastern Cape are blaming the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for the drop in their support.
The UDM, DA, and Mthatha residents and Ratepayers Association say there were too many glitches by the commission during registration of candidates.
Lack of resources has also been cited as a contributing factor to the drop in support.
The UDM lost five of its 16 seats in KSD, while the DA and MRRA lost two seats each.
The IEC has promised to comment on Monday on the allegations by opposition parties.
KSD councillors, Bandile Gqwetha, Mlindi Nhanha and Thembile Zibi representing the UDM, DA, and MRRA, respectively, say the IEC was not ready for the local government elections.
“The budgetary constraints and the hiccups that we experienced and administrative incapacity from the side of the IEC handicapped us. Remember our ward candidates were mixed up,” says Gqwetha.
“The glitches that really could be blamed on the IEC must have cost a lot of political parties votes and we do hope this thing is not going to re-occur in the future,” says Nhanha.
“Because of the constraints that I’ve already mentioned of not having enough resources and of not covering up the KSD area as a whole, so we failed,” says Zibi.
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