ConCourt's IEC ruling gives ANC renewed hope - political analyst
A political analyst says there appears to be lingering questions over the Constitutional Court's ruling in an Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) matter.
The court ordered that the local government elections be held between 27 October and 1 November.
The IEC wanted the vote to be postponed to next year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Analyst Theo Venter says the judgment's given the African National Congress (ANC) renewed hope.
READ: ConCourt orders IEC to hold local elections this year
The party failed to register a portion of candidates for the polls, and is now hoping to get another chance to complete the process.
"The ANC can now correct the mistakes they made when they could finish their list. So that gives them a small second bite on the apple which now makes clear why they withdrew their court case. So there is still this nagging issue how did they know to do that, were they informed in some way or another, we will guess about that."
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe has welcomed the decision.
"We are studying the judgment fully and we do welcome it because it is consistent what we have said when we put forward our application to join the application by the IEC guided by the recommendations of Judge Moseneke commission around the notion of having free and fair elections."
READ: IEC locked in weekend talks as ConCourt orders polls by 1 Nov
The IFP’s Velenkosini Hlabisa said: "After 10 September the minister will make a new proclamation with a new timetable which automatically means the ANC will submit the list which failed to submit on time and technically one will say that is why they withdraw their application. If that is correct, it would be very unfortunate."
