Failing this, he will go to the Western Cape High Court to seek an annulment of the congress held on Saturday and the voting results, which declared Bonginkosi Madikizela as the new provincial leader for the Western Cape, reports the Cape Argus.
“If they don’t respond accordingly, then I will be going to court to declare the conference and its outcomes null and void. I should have won, given the numbers that we received. Nothing adds up,” he told the newspaper.
At the congress, it was announced that 84% of the eligible voters of 1 175 had turned up to vote. This translates into 987 eligible voters. Max agrees with this figure.
However, Annelie Lotriet, presiding officer at the congress, on Monday said that 992 delegates were registered to vote on the day.
“There were 43 special votes and 13 spoilt ballots,” Lotriet said.
She said Madikizela got 510 votes and Max got 494 of the votes.
A second set of results was circulating, with the DA claiming that Max got only 493 votes, that there were 1 035 ballots and that 1 017 votes were cast.
Max said: “Given the number of votes and the total votes cast, the numbers don’t add up.”
He alleges photo and video evidence indicate that ballots were removed from the venue.
“We’ve checked our records and, yes, there are, totally, irregularities,” he added.
The DA said it will look into his complaint, but maintains everything at the congress was above board.
Madikizela criticised Max for raising the issue in the media and not with party leaders first.
“It is very ill-disciplined of him,” he said.