THE ANC has withdrawn its application to the Electoral Court requesting that the candidate registration system be reopened so that the party can submit their lists.
Earlier, in an affidavit filed by the party’s Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte, she had stated that the party was not able to register candidates in 94 municipalities as they had experienced technical difficulties when submitting the candidate lists.
Various political parties were opposed to the ANC’s application, while some like the EFF and DA, had threatened legal action over the matter.
Earlier, the party had filed its application to the Electoral Court to request that the candidate registration system be reopened so that the party can submit its lists.
The party had said it had no other option but to approach the Electoral Court, as the IEC had rejected its request to extend the election timetable.
Speaking to SABC News on Tuesday evening, the party’s Dakota Legoete said it was necessary to withdraw the application.
“We withdrew the case because as the ANC we felt that this will be a duplication of efforts, as the ANC, together with the IEC, have made an application to the Constitutional Court to get the elections postponed.
“This particular application we felt that it is not necessary to pursue it, rather let’s hopes on the application that is already at the ConCourt, because it will assist the ANC to ensure that what we wanted to pursue at the Electoral Court we can do at the ConCourt. It will also assist us as the ANC to save the little resources we have,”
Legoete said the withdrawal was not due to financial reasons.
“We do have a problem with finances but we are not necessarily broke and out of the game, it is only that we are trying our best to pull out all the stops, that’s why we even launched crowdfunding.
“We need to ensure that as the governing body we need to ensure that we stabilise the country.”