EFF statement on election fraud in Mpumalanga by-elections

9 December 2020

The Economic Freedom Fighters welcomes the arrest of three criminals, who were caught by our party agents fraudulently voting in ward 15 , Nkomazi municipality, Mpumalanga. These individuals, who do not reside in ward 15 were part of a contingent that has been bussed in by the ANC to steal electoral power. It is a common trend that the EFF has long pointed out, and places the ANC in a generation of failed liberation movements that undermine democracy to remain in power.

The arrests included the detaining of the Presiding Officer, a zip-zipscanner controller and a voters roll station controller. It is suspected that this fraud has been happening since the opening of the station in the ward, effectively meaning the election process in Nkomazi has been compromised.

As an organization we have long stated that the IEC is filled with partisan and corrupt individuals and is working with the ruling party to rig the elections. This incident revealed that the Local Government Elections in 2021 must be closely monitored as the ruling party is willing to do anything to retain power.

The Economic Freedom Fighters will write to the IEC to get a full explanation and outline corrective measures that they will take to ensure that such incident will never happen as it poses a serious threat to our democracy.

It must be noted that we took a resolution to contest political power by any means necessary, and the electoral process is one such avenue. However, if the IEC does not conduct free and fair elections, the EFF will have no other choice but to conduct a militant struggle to overthrow a despotic and corrupt regime of criminals.

Issued by the EFF, 9 December 2020