ANC SUPPORTS NEW ELECTION BILL DESPITE NP THREATS

JOHANNESBURG Sept 28 Sapa

The African National Congress supported Wednesday's cabinet
decision on the Local Government Election Amendment Bill, despite
National Party threats to take this new legislation before the
court, the ANC said on Thursday.

The Bill includes two clauses - dealing with proclamations
pertaining to the Western Cape, where a boundary dispute threatened
the whole election process - which the Constitutional Court
declared invalid.

It will be presented in parliament during a special sitting on
October 11 and 12.

The ANC said in a statement the time had come for the NP to
accept collective responsibility for cabinet decisions. Otherwise
the government of national unity needed to start dealing with the
NP as any government would deal with a hostile opponent.

Attempts to block he eletions in certain parts of the country
were a veiled attempt to retain old apartheid structures and to
frustrate the democratisation process, the ANC said.

"The effect of the NP's insistence on special rules for the
Western Cape is to undermine the letter and spirit of the Local
Government Transition Act, and in effect reneging on agreements
reached at the Multiparty Negotiations Forum."

The ANC said it was prepared to negotiate with all stakeholders
to make the November 1 elections a reality, but there would be no
talks with the NP unless it referred the boundary dispute to the
Special Electoral Court.

The ANC also criticised Deputy President F W de Klerk's
behaviour on the issue, saying it was a matter of serious national
concern.

Although de Klerk had chaired several cabinet and subcommittee
meetings where decisions were taken on local government, he also
actively encouraged the NP to make these decisions unworkable, the
ANC said.