The decision by the Constitutional Court upholding the Electoral Commission's decision to bar former president Jacob Zuma from being an MP has major consequences for Zuma, uMkhonto Wesizwe, the IEC, one of its commissioners and the Electoral Court.

There have been very few cases in which the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) had its credibility tested in the way it was over the last few weeks.

Never before had a former president won an Electoral Court ruling overturning a decision of the IEC.

It is also extremely rare for one of its commissioners to be accused of bias in public and in court, in the way in which former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party made claims against Janet Love.

The finding by the Constitutional Court, that her comments that a person who had been sentenced in the last five years to a term of more than 12 months in prison, were not directly about Zuma, must surely allow her to remain in her job.

If the court had found against Love, there would have been intense pressure on both her and the IEC. Some parties (including MK) might well have argued that all of the decisions in which she was involved would have to be revisited.

It would have been the first time a commissioner on the IEC had suffered a finding against them of bias (Pansy Tlakula did resign from the IEC after...