Serious accusation against IEC about using ANC colours in its registration campaign

ActionSA Parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, has accused the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) of using ANC colours in its registration campaign.

He explained that the IEC is supposed to be unbiased, and should have used its trademark blue and white colours.

“The IEC trademark colours are blue and white, but now they are using ANC colours to encourage registration. We see you, IEC,” he said.

Trollip explained that the Electoral Commission of South Africa is facing declining voter trust, and this will not go down well.

Complaints about government institutions, which should be independent and unbiased, using ANC colours in their marketing campaigns are not new.

In 2014, for example, the Freedom Front Plus submitted a complaint about advertisement boards in ANC colours from the Gauteng provincial government.

The party argued that this issue constituted a serious threat to South Africa’s democracy, as it provides free advertising to the ANC.

“Taxpayers’ money is being used to favour a single party. This makes a free and fair election impossible,” the party said.

“The advertisement campaign, which portrays government successes, costs more than R2 million per month. These costs are not covered by the ANC.”

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has also previously complained about large-scale public advertising campaigns featuring the ANC’s colour palette.

It lodged formal complaints with the Public Protector and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) around this issue.

Newsday asked the Electoral Commission of South Africa about Trollip’s recent complaint, but it did not respond by the time of publication.