Johannesburg – The Umkhonto Wesizwe party has dropped its court action over alleged election rigging.
“We confirm that today, (3 July 2024), we delivered a notice to the Electoral Court withdrawing our application,” Umkhonto Wesizwe said in a statement released Wednesday by spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela.
“We initiated the application to challenge the conduct of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to declare the national and provincial election results was in haste and violated the will of the people.
“We are still of the firm view that the election results are not credible, free nor were they fair.
“Our reasons, in part, which we will demonstrate in our pursuit to take the matter further, is the failure by the IEC to perform credible forensic audits of its election system.”
Earlier this week, on Tuesday, the IEC filed its affidavit at the Electoral Court in response to the Umkhonto Wesizwe’s bid to have the national and provincial election results declared not free and fair.
“The applicant has misrepresented the actual election data and results – that over 9.3 million votes are unaccounted for in the declared election results – is patently false,” reads part of the IEC affidavit.
IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo added: “The applicant’s case is hopeless on the merits. I am advised that it is not in the interests of justice to condone an application that has no prospect of succeeding.”
While the Umkhonto Wesizwe party, led by 82-year-old former president Jacob Zuma, did not disclose reasons for withdrawing its court application it said the “move was “strategic”.
