Twitter (@Action4SA)
The fledgling political party, ActionSA says it's gonna take legal action against the Independent Electoral Commission.
The party says the IEC missed a 10 am deadline on Monday to remedy the ballot paper where ActionSA's name does not appear, but just the party logo.
Party spokesperson, Lerato Ngobeni, says they were told that their name is absent because the party does not have an acronym that will fit the ballot paper.
She says they met with their lawyers to pursue the matter and they will be submitting an urgent application for the IEC to change the Ballot as it stands.
Ngobeni told Algoa FM News that they feel prejudiced in this regard.
She says there seems to be a pattern emerging in the party's dealing with the Electoral Commission.
In September last year, the Electoral Commission rejected the registration application of Action SA, because of the similarity of the party's logo to that of another registered party that had objected.
The Chief Electoral Officer at the time said the Electoral Act does not allow two parties to have similar logos as this may deceive or cause confusion among voters.
The rejection was also based on the symbol of ACTION SA containing the national flag as part of the symbol.
Given that the national flag has been registered under the Heraldry Act 18 or 1962, no organization, institution or concern, including a political party, may use the flag or portion of the flag to form part of its emblem.
Ngobeni said the party changed their logo soon after the rejection and then last week their candidate lists were omitted by the Electoral Commission, stating a clerical error.
ActionSA was founded by businessman and former Democratic Alliance (DA) mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba.
The ANC missed the deadline for candidate submission - the entire deadline was shifted by the IEC.
— Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) October 4, 2021
'ActionSA' - The name of our party is excluded by the IEC from draft ballot papers - the IEC refuses to amend them.
Free and fair?
The IEC meanwhile dismissed the insinuation that it acted without due impartiality towards Action SA.
They say the onus to choose party identifiers rests with the political party and not the Commission.
It says the scheme in the ballot design has been part of our electoral management practice since the inception of democratic local government in 2000.
