Why is Zuma’s party asks court to block sitting of new South African parliament?

South Africa’s third largest political party has asked the nation’s top court to block the sitting of the newly elected parliament later this week, saying the May 29 election was marred by fraud.

The National Assembly is scheduled to meet Friday for lawmakers to be sworn in to office and to elect a new speaker, deputy speaker, and president.

Former South African President Jacob Zuma’s party petitioned the Constitutional Court to stop parliament from convening, just days before legislators are scheduled to elect the president.

Lawmakers are set to meet on Friday for their first sitting after last month’s election. They’re also scheduled to appoint a speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly. The uMkhonto weSizwe Party, or MKP, initiated the court action after parliament rejected its demand to postpone the sitting.

However, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK), which finished third in the recent elections, has filed legal papers asking South Africa’s Constitutional Court to dismiss the electoral commission’s decision to declare the polls free and fair.

MK, which is led by former South African President Jacob Zuma, alleged there were irregularities in the voting and has asked for a new election.

The MKP submitted an application seeking a temporary suspension of the first sitting of the legislature “until such time that it will be properly constituted,” according to court documents dated June 10. The party, which won 58 of the 400 seats in the assembly, had previously threatened to boycott the meeting pending a legal challenge the party has said it plans to file challenging the election outcome.

South Africa’s parliament sees “no legal impediments” to the National Assembly convening on Friday, the chamber said in a statement on Monday.

Zuma and the MKP campaigned in the election against President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress, which lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since it came to power three decades ago. While the ANC has invited opposition parties to help form the next administration in a broad coalition known as a government of national unity, Zuma’s MKP has ruled out a tie-up while Ramaphosa remains at the party’s helm.

Ramaphosa succeeded Zuma as ANC leader in December 2017 and as the nation’s president two months later, when the latter was forced to resign after almost nine years in power. Zuma has faced allegations that he tacitly consented to large-scale corruption and the looting of billions of dollars of government funds by his allies — accusations he denies and for which he hasn’t been indicted.

The MKP and at least a dozen other smaller parties alleged soon after the election that the vote was rigged, though they’ve yet to submit any substantiating evidence. The Electoral Commission of South Africa has denied the allegation.

Among the parties that have expressed an interest in joining the new government is the centrist Democratic Alliance, which won the second-highest number of votes in the election after the ANC.

The party has not offered public evidence of the alleged fraud, and the commission said it has dealt with the allegations.

Ongama Mtimka, a political analyst and lecturer at Nelson Mandela University, believes that MK wants to dramatize the election for negotiation leverage.

“It is only in an environment of panic that political accommodation would be considered,” he said.

The May elections ended the African National Congress’ 30-year streak of winning outright majorities in parliament. The ANC is now seeking partners with other parties.

Zuma once led the ANC but fell from power amid persistent corruption scandals. He remains popular in his hometown province, KwaZulu-Natal, and led MK to its surprisingly strong finish in the recent elections.

“My view is that it’s not going to change anything that happens between now and Friday,” said Lawson Naidoo about MK’s court application. Naidoo is the executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution.