A 77-year-old Yusuf Khan, ‘councillor candidate’ for Al-Jamah is disheartened by the alleged negligence of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as he realised that his name was not listed on the candidate list for Ward 25 and the confusion he experienced in the entire process before voting day.
Khan, who has been a community activist in the Sydenham, Asherville area, for over 20 years, claimed that the party has humiliated him. “Initially, I was a party candidate for Ward 31 and after a while I received a certificate from the IEC confirming that I was a candidate for Ward 25, this followed after all our documentation had been submitted to Al-Jamah head office in Cape Town via the office of the KZN chairperson, Moulana Hoosen Khan. Moulana was the one who introduced me to the party in September,” he explained.
Khan had already put up posters as a party candidate for Ward 31 and did not know what steps to take as he was already introduced to the community as the candidate for Ward 31. “After contacting the party in Cape Town, I was told they would look into the matter and it should be resolved before election day. Election day came and I went to the polls to check if the matter had been rectified, to my surprise, my name was not on the ballot list for both wards 31 or 25. “For Ward 31, they had a candidate I had not heard of in any of the meetings with other party candidates. I only learned of her on Monday, 1 November,” Khan added.
Khan questioned why the party did not inform him that his name would not be on the list or that he was not running as a candidate. “After seeing that my name was not there, I messaged Moulana expressing my disappointment and embarrassment, my supporters were then left with no choice but to vote for another party. I feel I deserve an explanation after going through so much trouble printing posters and putting up the boards in the ward,” expressed Khan. Moulana Khan said the matter was beyond his control as his role was sourcing candidates for the party and collecting documentation for submission to the head office. “In eThekwini and in KZN, we were not mandated to capture any candidate’s information. It was the responsibility of the candidate to ensure that all the submitted documents were correct with correct details on the IEC forms.
The issue may have been a matter of time constraints. There were some delays on the IEC side as a result of confirmation of election dates and the changes, leaving parties with no time to validate and correct any information which may have been submitted incorrectly. By the time all the candidates were confirmed as registered voters, it was time for them to register as candidates. This also resulted in some of our candidates not making it to the poll in some wards,” explained Moulana Khan. He confirmed that he also found out about the Ward 31 candidate at a later stage when the party presidents introduced her as a PR candidate for eThekwini. Al-Jamah’s secretary general, Miss Patel, was contacted for comment, however, no comment was forthcoming at the time of going to print as she said she was in a meeting. The IEC was also contacted for comment, however, they still had not responded at the time of going to print
