The UDM is convinced that it will meet the new deadline set by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to register all its candidate councillors for the local government elections.
“We are more than ready now,” UDM secretary-general Bongani Msomi said on Wednesday.
The party was among the parties that could not register all its candidates and has blamed the Covid-19 restriction for impacting on its candidate selection process and glitches in the IEC IT system on the day of the August 23 registration deadline.
The electoral body has since extended the deadline to next Monday and Tuesday after this voter registration weekend.
In an interview with Independent Media, Msomi said there were some municipalities they wanted to contest in that were left out in registering candidates as they could not complete the candidate nomination process due to the health protocols and restrictions.
He also said on the cut-off date, they were also affected by the technical glitches. The system repeatedly kicked them off.
Now, the parties that already registered candidates and have no intention to update their candidate lists do not need to make re-submissions, but they will just confirm them.
However, those wanting to make updates will have to withdraw, revise the list and resubmit afresh.
Msomi confirmed that the IEC allowed the withdrawal of incomplete lists for updating and recapturing on the IEC system.
“The IEC system does allow us to withdraw the incomplete lists that we did submit but were incomplete.
“The submissions open on Monday after the election date is proclaimed, and the voter registration weekend closes.
“We are ready to submit. Everything is done accordingly on the spreadsheet,” he said.
Msomi said they were contesting in seven provinces.
Political Bureau