Political analyst Keith Gottschalk says the DA needs to ensure that in all future internal elections, “the paper trail is kept intact until after any disputes are resolved”.
This follows reports that the DA has been accused of destroying evidence of electoral fraud after it emerged that the ballot papers of the party’s Western Cape congress last month had been shredded despite an appeal against the election outcome.
“If it is true that the ballot papers were shredded while dispute proceedings are still under way, this will increase the suspicions of whichever faction lost against whichever faction won.
“As the DA continues to grow in size, contested internal elections will become more frequent,” said Gottschalk.
DA MPLs Lennit Max and Masizole Mnqasela submitted their appeal to the party’s federal executive. They allege that it had come to their attention that the party was no longer in possession of the evidence of the Western Cape congress elections, as the ballot paper had been shredded, according to reports.
Max challenged the result of the provincial election, in which he was defeated by Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela in the race for the DA’s provincial leader.
Meanwhile, Mnqasela lost to Social Development MEC Albert Fritz for the position of deputy leader.
Yesterday, Mnqasela said: “The process is in the hands of the organisation now. We hope the organisation will ensure that we maintain the trust in the party process.
"I trust that the organisation will do the right thing in ensuring that everybody has trust in the process and that our integrity as an organisation and credibility of our electoral systems is not compromised. That is my hope.
“But it’s a matter that is under our own internal court system which is our Federal Legal Commission (FLC).”
FLC chairperson Glynnis Breytenbach said she had not yet begun its investigation. Mnqasela said they would like the matter to be speedily resolved “because we have got national elections coming and want to focus on the bigger picture”.
He added he wouldn’t like the DA “to be seen fighting in the media or in the public space”.
“The sooner we get this matter over and done with, the better the organisation can focus on fighting the election.”
Max could not be reached for comment.