Pretoria - Election observers on Thursday said that none of the complaints raised by disgruntled smaller parties were "substantial enough" to raise questions on the 2019 general elections.
This comes as a group of small political parties which include Black First Land First, the African Content Movement (ACM), the Socialist Revolutionary Workers' Party (SRWP), the Land Party and, the APC among others threatened court action over alleged election irregularities.
The parties held an impromptu media briefing on Thursday, where they raised a number of issues of irregularities and slammed elections as "not free and fair".
The parties said they were willing to take the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to the Electoral Court over irregularities.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation, together with the National Foundations Dialogue Initiative, presented their preliminary report on their observations of special votes and election day.
The foundation raised a number of concerns on the elections, including some voting stations not opening on time, insufficient scanners at some stations as well as the accessibility of stations by people living with disabilities.
Despite these concerns, the foundation's Sello Hatang said observers were impressed with how the voting process unfolded.
"For the foundation and its voluntary observers, this has been a rich and rewarding experience," he said.
Speaking of objections raised by the smaller parties, Hatang said there were various systems in place to deal with such issues.
"I think our democracy has systems in place... you have an appeal system, you can go to court if you so wish. In our view, all the complaints that have been raised, they are not substantial enough for the elections to be questioned," he said.
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