The country is scheduled to hold elections on October 27. While
this date has been proclaimed by government, the IEC has, however, approached
the Constitutional Court seeking a postponement to February 2022.
The apex court has yet to rule on the matter. Meanwhile,
Malema on Wednesday said the EFF still believes that the current conditions,
with a raging Covid-19 pandemic, were not conducive for elections to take
place.
He added that the party has nonetheless started preparing
for the elections, whether the date is in October or February.
Malema highlighted that for free and fair elections to take
place, parties must be allowed to campaign without restrictions and take their
message to citizens.
"Political parties must be allowed to convene
political gatherings and engage members of the community on alternatives.
Disallowing political parties from campaigning undermines the freeness and
fairness of elections and will compromise South Africa’s democratic project.
"Free and fair elections are not determined by what
happens on voting day. They are primarily defined by the democratic right to
freely and fairly campaign before voting day. We call on the government to open
the country for free and fair elections," he said.
The red beret leader downplayed lockdown regulations saying
his party would not comply with them because this would leave an open window
for "criminals".
He maintained that all party activities of the EFF,
including regional meetings, would take place as usual, and no police officer
would stop these gatherings.
"What lockdown, there is no lockdown? We have
registered candidates. They want us to stay at home while they are busy doing
meetings and electing candidates. We must never listen to our enemies telling
us how to fight them. We are back to the streets," he said.
The EFF leader confirmed that his party met the 9 pm Monday
deadline to submit its candidate list to IEC.
The EFF will contest all 4468 wards in the country situated
in districts and metropolitan municipalities. He said, unlike the ANC, his
party's branch general assemblies, had gone ahead with no issues.
The EFF plans to launch its election manifesto on September
26. Malema said this manifesto would be compiled following extensive
consultation with citizens and EFF branches.
On the IEC’s candidate registration system, Malema again
decried the IEC's delay in closing online candidate submissions by 9 pm on
August 23.
The organisation had set 5 pm as the initial deadline but
moved the time to 9 pm on Monday following requests from some political
parties.
Malema demanded that the IEC reveal the names of those
political parties and continued his accusations that the IEC had moved the
deadline to assist the ANC in meeting the deadline for submissions.
On Tuesday, IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo had explained that there
were glitches in closing the online candidate submission system on time. He
said any political party that had filed after 9 pm would be disqualified.
Political Bureau
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