“The Multi-Party Charter (MPC) is dead. At least for now. We closed it at 12am on May 29. Now what is left is for all the parties to go back to the drawing board and reflect on what needs to happen once the counting of the ballots is over.”
These are the words of Neil de Beer, the leader of the United Independent Movement (UIM), one of the smaller parties that joined the DA, IFP, ACDP, ActionSA, and the Freedom Front Plus, in a bid to topple a possible ANC-EFF coalition in the elections.
“The Multi-Party Charter closed last night. The MPC agreed that we will reconvene after the calculation of the ballots and form a coalitions that will allow us to get to the 50%. We will then decide on who else we can approach and say here are the numbers and let us work together,” he said.
De Beer indicated that with just under 19% of the ballots having been accounted for, some of the parties in the charter are failing to live up to their promises of doing well in the elections.
He said for a new party, UIM is doing well with just over 2 000 ballots to its name. He said this represents 1.8 seats in the National Assembly.
“We are ready to make our mark in the National Assembly. We feel we will do well at the end of the counting and can possibly get a seat or two in order to make our contribution in Parliament,“ he said.
On the Electoral Commission of South Africa's handling of the elections that has been beset with issues such as Voter Machine Device failures, power outages and delays to voting at some polling stations, could be the result of under-funding of the commission, De Beer said
He said smaller parties have been disadvantaged by the technical glitches and reports that some voters were turned away without casting their votes.
“The smaller political parties were thrown with every curve ball that they could in the elections. We had to do 14 000 votes in writing. We had six days to out there and canvass. I tell you, the shenanigans where certain people could not cast three ballots is not affecting the biggest brother, but the smaller players. It is killing the smaller ones.
“This is what I always say, when a person says oops, it’s a mistake. Usually it’s too late because we are not getting another chance at an election again. We can’t function on an oops. This also could be deliberate.
“At the end of the day, the governing party of this country is saying they are not going to reschedule the elections again no matter the objections or court cases. So they are essentially saying we must live with it. Does that make the elections free. May be free, but does that make them fair, certainly not,“ he said.
The Star