MK party takes IEC to Electoral Court over two-hour results dashboard blackout

Former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party has returned to court, arguing that a two-hour blackout of the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) live results dashboard could have affected the integrity of the 2024 national and provincial elections. The Electoral Court heard the party’s bid on Wednesday and judgment was reserved.

What the MK party alleges

The MK party says the IEC’s live results dashboard experienced a two-hour blackout and that the outage may have compromised the integrity of the polls. The party initially lodged an urgent application after the 2024 elections seeking to set aside the results and to have President Cyril Ramaphosa directed to proclaim a new election date within 90 days.

The party later withdrew that urgent application without giving reasons, and then pursued the matter in the Constitutional Court before bringing it back to the Electoral Court. The party’s legal team asked the court to hear oral evidence from technical experts about the circumstances surrounding the outage.

Legal arguments in court

Advocate Thabani Masuku, leading the MK party’s legal team, told the court that the outage was not caused by a system failure. He said:

“It was not prompted by a system’s failure. So, what we know is that there was no malfunctioning system, there was some intervention.”

Masuku argued the onus shifts to the IEC when questions arise about whether conduct affects constitutional rights. He told the court:

“The onus shifts, it does not remain with the person who is alleging, who’s making the allegation. It shifts to the IEC. So, when the IEC considered that there was a system failure for two hours, it was caused by their conduct, and they cannot assure the public that after intervention in that system, what they needed to correct was corrected.”

IEC response

The IEC’s advocate, Wim Trengrove, told the court the MK party was abusing litigation norms and pointed to the party’s prior unsuccessful application before the Constitutional Court as reason for a more cautious approach.

IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo said the commission was happy with the evidence it presented. He said:

“We’ve been very candid and open with the court. We are quite happy with the evidence we placed before the court, which we believe to be consonant with our constitutional responsibilities.

We do believe we’ve provided evidence of what happened during the two hours by providing the system logs, which are important to prove that the result system was not broken. broken, was not compromised. We’ve been open with the court, and we’ve been mindful of our constitutional responsibilities.”

Mamabolo addressed the potential impact on voter confidence ahead of the local government election in November, saying:

“Of course, it’s a case we can do without in a democracy, but it has been brought; it has to be answered. We’ve answered it, and we’ve answered it as candidly as we should, and we are confident that the court now will consider all the merits and come to a judicious determination of the matter.

We’re not fearful. We recognise MK’s constitutional right to take to litigate, we take no issue with that. We call on their supporters, if not registered, to register this weekend, and ultimately to vote for their party when elections are held later in the year. The mere fact that there is this case does not stop the wheels of democracy from rolling; they roll, and they should,”

Background on MK party performance

The MK party performed well in the 2024 polls, becoming the third-largest party in the country. It received 15% of the national votes, replacing the EFF in third spot. The party launched in December 2023 under the ticket of radical economic transformation.

Next steps

Judgment in the Electoral Court matter was reserved following Wednesday’s proceedings.