The council was installed on November 22, but the FFD identified errors in the allocation of the seats and alerted the IEC. The IEC acknowledged the error last year.
In its determination on December 8, the commission said its investigations revealed that the number of ballot papers cast in favour of the EFF at that voting station was 19.
However, when the results were recorded in the commission’s database, the number “191” was erroneously recorded.
The IEC said , as a result, the EFF was erroneously allocated an additional 172 proportional representation (PR) votes.
“Due to the error, incorrect allocation of total ward and PR votes (9,206), the EFF was incorrectly allocated six seats. Based on the correct total of ward and PR votes cast in favour of the EFF (9,034), the EFF should have only been allocated five seats, with the remaining seat being allocated to the Forum for Democrats,” the IEC said in its determination.
The IEC amended its results and the FFD was allocated one council seat. Despite the IEC’s allocation of the seat to the forum, the municipality did not remove the EFF councillor.
This prompted the FFD and the Freedom Advocacy Network (FAN) to approach the court to rectify the situation.
The application was heard last Friday and the court passed judgment on Tuesday.
In its judgment, the court declared that Morebantwa is an elected councillor of the Ramotshere Moiloa local municipal council and is deemed to have assumed office on the date of the declaration of the results by the IEC.
In reaction to the judgment, FAN operations and advocacy manager Tiego Thotse said had the IEC error not been corrected, the council would continue to have been unlawfully constituted and all decisions it would have taken would have been illegitimate and ripe for court challenge.
“Thankfully the court has intervened to correct this poor, and moreover unlawful, state of affairs, in a small but significant way, bolstering South Africans’ faith in constitutional democracy,” Thotse said.
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North West councillor gets back seat wrongly given to EFF after IEC vote-counting mishap
Image: Kevin Sutherland/EPA
The North West high court has ordered the return to its rightful elected councillor of a seat erroneously allocated to the EFF.
The court ordered the speaker and the municipal manager of the Ramotshere Moiloa local municipality (formerly Zeerust) to take all steps to reallocate a seat now held by the EFF councillor to Thabiso Morebantwa, the representative for the Forum for Democrats (FFD).
The FFD contested the local government elections in the municipality in November last year. Due to what the party claims is a counting error by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), the seat that was supposed to go to it was instead allocated to the EFF.
Political party goes to court to get seat 'erroneously allocated' to EFF
The council was installed on November 22, but the FFD identified errors in the allocation of the seats and alerted the IEC. The IEC acknowledged the error last year.
In its determination on December 8, the commission said its investigations revealed that the number of ballot papers cast in favour of the EFF at that voting station was 19.
However, when the results were recorded in the commission’s database, the number “191” was erroneously recorded.
The IEC said , as a result, the EFF was erroneously allocated an additional 172 proportional representation (PR) votes.
“Due to the error, incorrect allocation of total ward and PR votes (9,206), the EFF was incorrectly allocated six seats. Based on the correct total of ward and PR votes cast in favour of the EFF (9,034), the EFF should have only been allocated five seats, with the remaining seat being allocated to the Forum for Democrats,” the IEC said in its determination.
The IEC amended its results and the FFD was allocated one council seat. Despite the IEC’s allocation of the seat to the forum, the municipality did not remove the EFF councillor.
This prompted the FFD and the Freedom Advocacy Network (FAN) to approach the court to rectify the situation.
The application was heard last Friday and the court passed judgment on Tuesday.
In its judgment, the court declared that Morebantwa is an elected councillor of the Ramotshere Moiloa local municipal council and is deemed to have assumed office on the date of the declaration of the results by the IEC.
In reaction to the judgment, FAN operations and advocacy manager Tiego Thotse said had the IEC error not been corrected, the council would continue to have been unlawfully constituted and all decisions it would have taken would have been illegitimate and ripe for court challenge.
“Thankfully the court has intervened to correct this poor, and moreover unlawful, state of affairs, in a small but significant way, bolstering South Africans’ faith in constitutional democracy,” Thotse said.
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