Of Satanism, scapegoats and human rights part 2

SAPRA received a response from the Independent Electoral Commission:

You will recall that the South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA) and the South African Pagan Council (SAPC) lodged a formal objection with the IEC against the registration of the National Party as a political party on the grounds that the NP's policy on religion and religious education propagate the contravention of the constitutional right to freedom of belief and religion to recognized religious minorities and intend to prevent membership of the NP on the grounds of religious affiliation by excluding identified religious minorities as undesirable.

The Chief Electoral Officer has not upheld our objection against the National Party - the Commission states that the NP's submitted constitution does not contravene section 16 of the Electoral Commission Act - that the NP's submitted constitution does not discriminate on the basis of religion or belief.

Clearly, while the NP's submitted constitution may not contain any discriminatory content, the party's policies on religion as advertised on its website - http://www.nationalparty.co.za/religion.htm - indicate that the National Party has every intention of discriminating against South Africans on the basis of religion, and the NP has already publicly identified the religious minorities the NP intend to suppress.

In correspondence to this Alliance the NP stated, "We will not allow witches to operate in South Africa under (an) NP Government. We and our supporters can not associate ourselves with anything that are (sic) linked to Satanism. We don't have a problem with your view on our policy, but we will NEVER regard Satanism or witches (sic) as a form of religion. Our major support comes from Christians and Muslims etc, we will never link this party to Satanism or witchcraft. We will make this very clear during elections 2009."

This Alliance has 30 days within which to submit an appeal to the Commission's decision.

Ask yourself this question: Should our country's democratic institutions be permitting political parties to openly and brazenly advertise their intention to undermine religious equality on the basis of partisan religious prejudice?

Again, please let me know your thoughts.