Cape Town - Former Western Cape ANC leader Marius Fransman’s People’s Movement for Change (PMC) and sacked provincial legislature speaker Masizole Mnqasela’s Alliance of Citizens for Change (ACC) are among the organisations gearing-up to contest the elections on May 29, having submitted their supporters’ signatures to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
For new political parties to contest the election, the IEC required 60 000 signatures, with the deadline for submissions being on Friday.
According to the IEC, preliminary indications show that 115 parties made submissions to contest seats in the National Assembly.
“Early indications are that all 14 parties currently represented in the National Assembly have made submissions to contest seats in the National Assembly and at least one region.
“In respect of provinces, at least 93 unrepresented parties have made submissions, in addition to 11 independent candidates and the 14 parties currently represented.”
The PMC’s spokesperson, Armien Albertyn, thanked the party’s supporters.
“We would like to thank everyone who worked towards getting those signatures. We would like to thank everyone who signed up to say that PMC is a good political party.
“We will be contesting the Western Cape Province and the Northern Cape, and we will be on the national ballot paper,” Albertyn said.
“All we can do is just thank everyone, and the real work is really starting now.
“And we would just like to ask all the PMC supporters and members to just keep on doing what they’re doing, going out there, helping and assisting our people, and maybe we just grow from strength to strength, and everyone’s support is needed if we want to make a change in this country.”
Mnqasela, whose DA membership was terminated after the party alleged he made disparaging remarks about it during a media briefing, also submitted his party signatures to the IEC.
Mnqasela said that his party would contest elections in all provinces.
“It’s a special moment for ACC. Seven months later, we are now qualified to contest elections across the country. We have worked so hard over the past seven months, and we have been very disciplined.
“It’s not been an easy journey, but one thing that we can all be very happy about is the commitment to say that ACC succeeds.
“Thank you very much to all our data capturers and changers that were on the field and those who sacrificed their sleep. This is an investment in South Africa’s democracy,” said Mnqasela.
The Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo), which formed a pact with the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), said it wouldn’t be contesting the elections in the Western Cape, although it had campaigned to increase its numbers in the province.
The party said that a lack of resources were among issues that led to its exclusion.
“We have successfully submitted the required number of signatures for us to participate in the provincial elections.
“However, we couldn’t raise the required amount of money to contest the provincial elections.
“But we will be participating in the National Council of Provinces and the National Assembly,” said Thole Somdaka, Azapo’s provincial spokesperson.
The IEC said work was under way to verify the submissions for compliance.
“In terms of the law, a party submission must contain a list of candidates accompanied by payment of the applicable deposit for it to be compliant.
“In respect of unrepresented parties, the submission must, in addition, be accompanied by proof that the requisite number of signatures have been uploaded on the nomination portal by capturing the identity numbers of the supporters.
“The actual document containing the signatures must also have been uploaded on to the portal or, alternatively, delivered to the national office of the Electoral Commission by the cut-off time.”
It said the requirements for independent candidates were a prescribed nomination accompanied by the prescribed form confirming that the candidate had submitted the requisite number of signatures.
“The actual document containing the signatures of supporters must also have been uploaded on to the nomination portal or, alternatively, delivered to the national office of the Electoral Commission by the cut-off time.
“Failure by a party or independent candidate to comply with any of these foundation nomination requirements cannot be remedied and will result in the disqualification of the party or independent candidate.”
The IEC said it would soon issue a statement to indicate which parties were on the ballot.