LISTEN | Electoral Court dismisses ANC case seeking deregistration of MK party

The ANC has lost its case in the Electoral Court seeking the deregistration of the newly launched MK party.

The court on Tuesday dismissed its case, saying the governing party has not made a case why the Jacob Zuma-led party must be deregistered.

It found the ANC’s contention that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) broke the law by allowing the MK party to supplement its already rejected application “holds no water”.

There is no law suggesting the IEC is prohibited from allowing political parties to supplement applications even if they were initially rejected.

The court found other parties had previously supplemented their applications.

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It dismissed the ANC’s contention that the rejection of the application meant that MK party had to start the process afresh.

The court ruled its reading of the Electoral Act was that as long as there was an application before the CEO he should register the political party.

“The ANC contention that because the section makes no reference to supplementation, an application cannot be supplemented holds no water,” the court said.

“It is an artificial approach, it implies that contrary to the substantive approach to the consideration for an application for registration as implies from the reasons from which the CEO may decline to register a political party which are set out in section 16(1), the CEO should refuse to register a political party for elementary administrative details which the act and the regulation did not deem necessary to prescribe.”

The court said the manner in which applications are submitted was not prescribed in section 15 of the regulations.

“Importantly the section does not require an applicant to comply fully at the first go. As regards context, there was no need for an applicant, after an application for registration is rejected by the electoral commission, to commence the whole process afresh,” the court said.

The ANC is on Tuesday expected to react to the judgment and announce its way forward.

The party will on Wednesday begin the second part of its opposition against the registration of the MK party, in which it argues that the logos used by the party belong to the ANC.

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