The DA has been accused of destroying evidence of electoral fraud after it emerged that the ballot papers of its Western Cape congress had been shredded despite an appeal against the election outcome.
DA MPL Lennit Max is challenging the results of the provincial election, in which he was defeated by Bonginkosi Madikizela tobecome the party's Western Cape leader.
Max and a fellow member of the Western Cape provincial legislature, Masizole Mnqasela, alleged in their appeal papers, filed with the party's leadership, that they had discovered that the ballot papers from last month's congress had been destroyed. Mnqasela lost the deputy provincial leadership position to social development MEC Albert Fritz.Max and Mnqasela have refused to accept the election results and have alleged serious irregularities in the electoral process, including that there were more ballot papers than the number of congress delegates with voting rights.
On Tuesday, the two filed their appeal arguments with the chairman of the party's federal executive, James Selfe, in which they allege that it has come to their attention that the party is no longer in possession of the crucial evidence of the provincial congress elections because the ballot papers have been shredded.
They have argued for a rerun of the provincial congress since no evidence of the electoral process exists anymore.
The two are said to be preparing to haul the DA before the high court should they lose the appeal.
DA members sympathetic to Max said special ballots should have been disallowed because they had been cast before the congress was constituted.
These include the votes of prominent members such as Western Cape premier Helen Zille and Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille.MARGIN OF VICTORY
Madikizela's margin of victory was just 16 votes.
A source close to the process said 43 votes were being contested, which meant a successful challenge of their validity could change the result.
"By just after 6am on the day after the vote, Lennit informed the presiding officer, Annelie Lotriet, of his decision to challenge the process. He sent an e-mail confirming it around 8am," said the source.
"For the ballot papers to have been shredded before the notice of appeal was lodged, they must literally have been shredded overnight. Now isn't that suspicious?"
Another DA insider said the party generally kept ballot papers for about six months after an election.
Max refused comment on the allegations he was making against his party, confirming only that he had appealed to the party's national leadership for a resolution of the electoral dispute.
"I am not in a position to comment about it at this stage as it is being dealt with internally. Please call James Selfe," he said.
Mnqasela also declined to comment.
Selfe on Friday confirmed receipt of the appeal papers but declined to comment on the allegations they contained, saying the matter was being investigated by the DA federal legal commission...