The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in Free State is investigating allegations of voter registration interference by the African National Congress (ANC) ahead of last week’s by election in ward 49 in Mangaung Metro Municipality.
The objection has been raised by independent candidate Lehloholo Moqolo who has accused the ANC of electoral fraud and thuggery, vote buying and intimidation.
The ruling party recaptured all four wards in last week’s by-elections.
The councillor seats became vacant after the government party axed its councillors after they voted with the opposition for Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats leader Papie Mokoena to become the Executive Mayor.
Mokoena’s mayorship was interdicted by the Free State high court a week after his election.
The ANC asked the court for an interdict because it believed the council processes followed for his election were illegal.
By-elections
The IEC has sought to explain the registration process for the recent by-elections in George, in the Western Cape.
This after the GOOD party alleged that the Democratic Alliance (DA) fraudulently registered some voters in three contested wards.
The DA won two of the wards, giving them the outright majority to govern the municipality. The DA has denied the fraud allegations.
The IEC’s Deputy CEO Masego Sheburi says, “When the matter was raised we delinked the addresses from the point of interest in the ward and defaulted those people to their correct addresses as they supplied them, which locates them within the VD and the ward.”
“We further confirmed that those people were entitled to vote in that ward. The allegation that those people were bussed in recently is also not founded because those people have been historically registered in that ward and some of them have voted in elections that were held in that municipality in that ward,” Sheburi explains. -Additional reporting by Risha Maduray
