DA can't call on the US to interfere with IEC processes, says electoral expert
The IEC has criticised the DA's letter to the US appealing for observer support during the elections, saying it directly interferes with the commission's work.
Picture: Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - Former Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) commissioner Terry Tselane has called on the commission to take firm action against the DA for requesting the involvement of western governments in the country’s general elections.
The party penned a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking for independent domestic observers, including capacitating civil organisations.
Tselane says some of the requests put forward by the DA, directly interferes with the commission's work.
The DA is defending its letter calling for the US and several other western countries’ involvement in South Africa’s elections.
It's been widely criticised for not only undermining this country’s sovereignty but weighing up its long track record of free and fair elections against the US, which over the last two decades has been facing allegations of voter suppression.
Tselane said the DA's request is simply shocking.
"To call on foreign governments to interfere with an institution that you know is a Chapter 9 institution is problematic in the extreme."
Tselane added that the IEC should be firm when addressing this issue with the DA.
"You can't just make statements in the media and in the public platform without verifying. The only way you can verify is by going through the electoral court, use the instruments that are there in law."
Some have suggested the DA’s letter is nothing more than a populist response to polls and indicates the party fears it could perform badly when the country votes in May