The MK Party, led by chair Nkosinathi Nhleko, has reignited its legal challenge to the outcome of the May 29, 2024, elections, claiming issues with the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) vote capturing and reporting system. This is the second time the party has brought its case before the electoral court, now backed by an analysis from its own expert, Vusi Mhlongo, a specialist in information systems and technology.
The party initially withdrew its case in July, citing the need for more time to review the IEC’s response and conduct a thorough analysis of the results. In its latest filing on October 3, the MK Party once again pointed to a two-hour system outage during the vote-counting process and alleged discrepancies where more votes were counted than cast in certain areas.
Nhleko, a former police minister, filed the affidavit supporting the challenge, relying on Mhlongo’s analysis, which questioned the integrity of the IEC’s digital systems. Mhlongo stated that his examination revealed flaws in the vote capturing and reporting process, casting doubt on the accuracy of the election outcome. He stressed that he had no political affiliations and was solely focused on the technical aspects of the case.
The MK Party is calling for the 2024 election results to be nullified and for fresh elections to be held within 90 days. They argue that the alleged irregularities in the IEC’s system undermine the fairness of the elections.
IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo confirmed that the commission will oppose MK’s latest attempt to have the election results overturned. In response to previous allegations, Mamabolo stated that MK had provided no evidence of vote-rigging and misrepresented election data.
The party’s ongoing legal action seeks to expose the inner workings of the IEC’s systems, with Nhleko arguing that the integrity and reliability of the vote capturing process must be thoroughly investigated. The Constitutional Court had earlier dismissed a related case by the MK Party, citing a lack of evidence to establish a prima facie case.