In spite of a series of objections against the recently concluded elections, Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo will on Thursday officially receive from the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) the lists of designated members of Parliament (MPs) and members of Provincial Legislatures (MPLs).
In a statement, the Office of the Chief Justice said the handing over of the name lists of Members of the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures to the Chief Justice is part of an established practice after every election.
“It is an established practice in South Africa that after the announcement by the IEC of the results of the National and Provincial elections, the IEC hands over the lists of members of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures to the Chief Justice who then hands them over to the Secretary to Parliament.
“The Chief Justice will in turn hand over the National Assembly list to the Secretary to Parliament in preparation for the first sitting of the National Assembly,” the office has said.
Furthermore, the outgoing Chief Justice is also expected, as part of the norm, to transmit the lists of designated members of the Provincial Legislatures to the designated Judge Presidents who will preside over the first sittings of the Provincial Legislatures.
The IEC is expected to hand over these lists to the Chief Justice at Constitutional Court no later than 2pm on Thursday where members of the media will be allowed a chance to witness the event.
The handing over of these lists comes amid murmurs of dissatisfaction after various political parties objected to the election results due to alleged incidents of vote rigging.
The IEC confirmed that it had received more than 579 objections.
However, according to the SABC News, IEC Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Masego Sheburi, indicated that all those who had submitted objections to the commission would have received a response before the announcement of the results.
A number of political parties had called on the commission to delay the announcement of the results, which were eventually released on Sunday.
Sheburi added that when the commission released the results, there were no outstanding objections and as such, the commission saw no reason to delay the announcement.
“Everyone who took the pen to raise an objection with the commission would have received a reason of what the commission did with their objection. Where they agreed with their objection, the commission would have told them the steps that they are going to be taking. Where the commission rejected those objections, the commission would have informed the person of the reasons for the rejection.”
The Star