JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s third-largest political party, led by former President Jacob Zuma, has filed legal papers to stop the first session of parliament scheduled for Friday to elect the country’s president to make.
Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party has said none of the 58 newly elected lawmakers will attend the meeting. The party has previously lodged objections with the Independent Electoral Commission over widespread irregularities in last month’s national elections. The party received just over 14% of the votes.
The party, also known as MK, has offered no public evidence to support its allegations. The committee has said it has addressed all objections.
The legal challenge now asks the Constitutional Court to overrule the commission’s decision to declare the elections free and fair and order the president to call new elections.
In the elections, the ruling African National Congress party lost its majority in parliament for the first time since it came to power 30 years ago at the end of the apartheid era.
The ANC is now trying to form a national unity government with several opposition parties.
The outcome of those talks will determine who parliament chooses as president of South Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma’s rival, is seeking re-election for a second term.
