GOOD Media Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
22 July 2023
The GOOD Party is challenging the result of the George by-elections held on 18 and 19 July 2023 in wards 16, 20 and 27. The objection has been filed in terms of Section 65 of the Local Government Act: Municipal Electoral Act 27 of 2000.
Regardless of logistical inconvenience, the IEC cannot forgo its primary responsibility to ensure that elections are free and fair.
A few days before the scheduled by-elections in George this week, the GOOD Party requested a postponement after discovering widespread fraud in the registration of voters.
That is the core contention in the GOOD Party’s formal objection to the by-election results the electoral commission declared in George this week.
The objection, containing chapter and verse evidence of voter registration fraud that neither the commission nor Electoral Court were willing to consider in the run-up to the by-elections, was submitted to the IEC yesterday.
Despite knowing of the fraud, the IEC declined to postpone the by-elections because it said it had been made aware of the evidence too late.
The evidence demanded active investigation; not a “passive, supine and static” response (to borrow from the High Court judgement in Democratic Alliance v Public Protector, with reference to Public Protector v Mail & Guardian).
Section 65(4) of the Local Government Act: Municipal Electoral Act 27 of 2000, obliges the IEC to consider and decide objections. Evidence provided to the IEC before the George by-elections required consideration. The results of the elections were materially impacted by irregular voter registrations.
Among the irregularities listed in the GOOD Party’s objection to the IEC are (1) The IEC’s failure to detect and investigate radical increases in the number of “eligible” voters, and (2) High numbers of voters registered at single addresses – 188 voters at one address and 61 at another.
The objection included affidavits signed by DA canvassers confessing that they had been paid R300 a day to falsely register voters from Thembalethu (where a
by-election wasn’t held) at addresses in wards where by-elections were taking place. The re-registered Thembalethu voters were listed as living at the canvassers’ address.
The DA has, itself, conceded to this fraud having taken place. In proceedings of the Electoral Court on the eve of the by-elections, it said it had been deceived by “activists”.
Despite being well-aware of the fraud ahead of the by-elections, the IEC insisted that the elections go ahead – and declared them free and fair.
The relief GOOD seeks is for the IEC to set aside the by-elections or amend the results by removing all voters who are unlawfully included in the voter’s roll for Wards 16, 20 and 27.
- The GOOD objection clarifies the truth about the 188 voters registered at a single Primrose Crescent address in Borcherds. DA’s provincial leader, Tertuis Simmers, contended this week that these voters lived in an informal settlement, behind the Primrose Crescent address. There is in fact no informal settlement in the immediate vicinity; it is a working-class community of brick-and-mortar homes – with street names and numbered houses.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 082 518 3264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Samantha Jackson, GOOD Acting Media Manager
Cell: 083 550 9875
Email: media@forgood.org.za