The race is on for the divided Democratic Alliance (DA) as leadership hopefuls, Mbali Ntuli, John Steenhuisen and John Moodey battle it out for the party’s top position. The official opposition is gearing up to hold its elective conference virtually from October 31 to November 1.
DA members will vote for their new leader through an IT voting system. But discontent seems to be rising from two of the candidates, Ntuli and Moodey. They’re questioning the independence and legitimacy of the online system.
“The opus system will not allow any verification of who is actually voting, it will only allow us to know that a vote took place. I also stress that the system will be able to be rigged. This opus system does not allow myself or anybody in my team to be able to ensure the fidelity, impartiality of the system,” says Ntuli.
Moodey says: “It has been admitted that the electronic voting system is not without flaws. It cannot be guaranteed that the intended delegates will be in fact be the people who are voting. Quite frankly I’m not gullible to believe that the process will not be manipulated.”
But in a statement, the party’s federal chairperson and CEO refuted allegations that the party would attempt to influence internal election results through the IT system. The DA says all systems are in place for the conference.
“We are getting into the phase where candidates are intensifying their campaigns but from the party’s side, the focus now is making sure that all those qualifying branches conduct their branch launches and that they can nominate their candidate. So by the end of this month, we can be done with the nomination of delegates to congresses in order to establish the voters roll to congress,” says DA National Spokesperson, Solly Malatsi.
Earlier this week, Ntuli challenged Steenhuisen to a series of public live debates. She says she targeted Steenhuisen because he is the interim party leader.
In a short response to SABC News, Steenhuisen says he respects the decisions of the party and the presiding officers to determine when, and on what platform, any internal debates will take place.
He further says that he is focused on his campaign and will only be speaking directly to voting delegates for the upcoming congress.
However, one analyst is of the view that by virtue of being an incumbent leader, Steenhuisen may have the upper-hand in the leadership race.
“There is no doubt that any incumbent leader that would include Steenhuisen does have an advantage when they run office. You can look comparatively to the ANC. Incumbents have advantages. When opponents like Ntuli raise this points it sensitizes participants, it could even help her of John Moodey for that factor,” suggests Professor Susan Booysen- a researcher for the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection.
Ntuli has since sent her grievances to the DA’s electoral team.
Mbali Ntuli speaks to SABC News on her decision to run for DA leader:
