ActionSA is pleased to report that the process it undertook in terms of Section 16(A) of the Electoral Commissions Act has been concluded and ActionSA will now be represented correctly on all ballot papers going forward.
We are at pains to point out that ActionSA is yet to receive the reasons for the Electoral Court judgement. When this happens, we will consider whether to exercise our right of appeal given that the absence of an abbreviated name resulted in 25% less ward votes being obtained relative to PR votes in these 2021 Local Government Elections.
ActionSA was firmly of the view that further by-elections and elections could not take place in which voters experienced difficulty in expressing their support for our party. This is why the amendment of the registration particulars was a critical and time-sensitive undertaking that could not await the supply of the reasons from the Electoral Court.
Already by-elections are beginning to emerge across South Africa, including in provinces which ActionSA did not contest in 2021. Our strategy for 2024 will, undoubtedly, involve identifying by-elections which offer the prospect of winning wards, gaining representation in new councils and breaking into new communities.
Our name will be represented as ActionSA and our abbreviated name will be reflected as ActionSA, as was originally intended in our initial registration.
We celebrate that this matter will no longer be a distraction to the critical work of building the political home South Africans need to be an alternative to a diminishing ANC. We welcome the fact that no voter will ever experience difficulty again in locating ActionSA, or any of its candidates, on the ballot paper.