‘Monumental disaster’: DA fights to get name on ballot paper for Cape Town by-election after blunder

The DA in the Western Cape is scrambling to get its name on the ballot paper for next year’s by-election in Ward 56 in Cape Town.

• The DA in the Cape Town metro is determined to get its name on the ballot paper ahead of next year’s by-election in Ward 56.
• The party missed the IEC deadline to submit its nomination for ward councillor, while several political parties will be contesting the by-election.
• A fierce battle is expected among political parties to try and swoon coloured voters.

The DA in the Western Cape is scrambling to get its name on the ballot paper for next year’s by-election in Ward 56 in Cape Town after it missed the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) deadline to submit nominations.

The by-election in February 2023 is expected to be a fierce battle between political parties to try and swoon coloured voters. The ward includes Kensington, Factreton and Maitland.

Ward 56 councillor Helen Jacobs resigned in November after being elected in 2016.

Seven political parties will be contesting the by-election in the ward, including the Patriotic Alliance, the GOOD party, the EFF and Al Jama-ah.

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“All the by-elections in February have nomination closure dates in January. This one was the only one to close in December, and our processes could not be completed in time,” said Christopher Fry, DA Ithemba constituency head.

However, several DA sources said the party was looking for excuses.

One source said:

Another party insider said it was a “monumental disaster”.

“The DA hasn’t lodged a candidate. We missed the deadline. It’s a failure of leadership,” the insider added.

The DA’s Cape Town metro regional chairperson Dan Plato said the party was exploring options to resolve the matter.

“Historically, candidate nominations had to be submitted to the IEC approximately 23 days before election day. In this case, it was 51 days. This is not the norm and created much confusion. This deviation [from] the standard timeline for the submission of candidates to the IEC resulted in the party failing to submit a candidate,” he said.