The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape has remained mum over accusations of voter registration fraud taking place ahead of this week’s by-elections in George.
On Sunday, Patricia De Lille’s party, the Good Party, in a statement, accused the DA of having registered unqualified voters onto the IEC system.
According to Good Party’s leader in the Western Cape, Brett Herron, on Saturday night, the party submitted what it called “shocking evidence of DA voter registration fraud” in George to the Independent Electoral Commission.
Herron said the evidence submitted to IEC included a list of names of residents of Thembalethu, where there is no by-election. He said these voters were fraudulently re-registered as residents of Borcherds, where one of three George by-elections is scheduled for this week.
“The people named on the list have never lived in Ward 20 (Borcherds) and don’t qualify to vote in the ward. The list includes their real addresses and ID numbers,” said Herron.
He said the party’s submission to the commission also submitted affidavits signed by the DA canvassers who re-registered the Thembalethu voters.
“According to the canvassers, they acted under instruction, and the fraud only became apparent to them after the re-registrations had been completed.”
“In their affidavits, the canvassers described their modus operandi as re-registering Thembalethu voters as residents of an informal settlement within the Borcherds ward boundary.”
“We have reason to believe the fraud extended across all three of the contested wards,” Herron said.
He added that the submission to the IEC contained “more than sufficient prima facie evidence to warrant the Commission postponing the George by-elections while conducting a thorough audit of new registrations”.
Herron said the IEC’s Chief Electoral Officer had confirmed receipt of GOOD’s complaint and supporting affidavits “and has referred the matter to the Commissioners whose primary obligation is to ensure that elections are conducted freely and fairly”.
Herron said they approach the electoral court should the commission fail to investigate the matter.
“Rigging elections by fraudulently registering voters who don’t qualify to vote subverts this principle and disregards the will of the people.”
“The DA has been caught with its pants down manipulating the voter’s roll. It is a desperate act, the ultimate crime of political contestation.”
Attempts to get comment from the DA in the province proved unsuccessful at the time of publishing.