The ANC has come out all guns blazing against the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), arguing in the Constitutional Court that the commission’s software for submitting candidate lists should not be allowed to trump electoral laws.
The ANC is also arguing that, if the highest court in the land upholds the recent Electoral Court ruling against it, the constitutional rights of some of its members to stand for public office following their nomination will be violated, and those of voters to elect their preferred candidates will be undermined.
This is according to an affidavit submitted to the country’s apex court by party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, seeking an order to overturn last month’s Electoral Court decision.
The Electoral Court dismissed the ANC’s appeal against the IEC after the body that runs elections decided that the ANC had not submitted its lists of candidates in at least six municipalities after it failed to click the “submit as final” button on the IEC’s online candidate nomination system (OCNS) before the 5pm deadline on August 28.
This decision has sent the ANC into a tailspin, as it may not be able to contest the November 4 local government elections in municipalities such as Port St Johns, Ngquza Hill, Walter Sisulu, Sunday’s River Valley, uMshwathi and Mangaung, with at least 181 of its candidates likely to be affected if it does not win its case in the Constitutional Court.
The party contends that clicking the ‘submit as final’ button was not a legal requirement in terms of section 14 of the Municipal Electoral Act but merely a software function
The matter is due to be heard in the ConCourt this week, following the ANC’s application for the apex court to overturn the Electoral Court’s decision in favour of the IEC.
The party contends that clicking the “submit as final” button was not a legal requirement in terms of section 14 of the Municipal Electoral Act but merely a software function.
The ANC further argues that in any case all its candidates had been “uploaded and captured” on the OCNS by the stipulated deadline — which, it tells the ConCourt, has never been disputed by the IEC.
“Before 5pm on August 28 2026, the deadline fixed by the election timetable, the ANC completed the electronic forms and uploaded every annexure in every municipality and ward it intended to contest, including the six municipalities at issue in this application,” Mbalula says in papers before the apex court.
“However, in respect of the six affected municipalities, the ANC’s administrators, for reasons beyond their control, could not before the cut-off time press the button on the OCNS labelled ‘submit as final’.
“The question is therefore whether pressing ‘submit as final’ is a condition [for] a valid electronic submission under sections 14 and 17 of the act, or merely an administrative step within the [IEC] software that neither the act nor the regulations require. That is a question of law. It is the only question on which the appeal turns.”
The ANC chief further argues that the issue would disenfranchise voters and therefore have ramifications beyond his party. The IEC had rejected 2,274 candidates from 45 political parties, even though they had been captured on the OCNS, simply because they were “not fully submitted” by the August 28 5pm cut-off time.
The relief sought by the intervening applicants is required to ensure their rights to vote for a political party of their choice, and to contest and possibly hold public office in the upcoming local government elections, are protected
— ANC court papers
“[Accordingly], voters in the affected municipalities and wards [will be] deprived of choices that section 19 of the constitution exists to protect.”
Mbalula is supported by Bongani Mathae, one of the 49 affected ANC members in Mangaung, who is also the current speaker of the Free State’s only metro municipality.
In papers in which he and the other 48 affected by the candidate submission issue ask to be allowed to intervene in the ConCourt case, Mathae argues that the Electoral Court’s decision to rule in favour of the IEC last month violated his and others’ constitutional right to stand for public office.
“The relief sought by the intervening applicants is required to ensure their rights to vote for a political party of their choice, and to contest and possibly hold public office in the upcoming local government elections, are protected.
“The relief also extends to the class of citizens in Mangaung who are members and supporters of the ANC to vote for a political party of their choice.
“As stated above, the application is brought by the 49 intervening applicants in their own interests in vindicating their section 19(3) constitutional rights; in the interests of the class of persons being ANC members in Mangaung, in terms of section 38(c) of the constitution; and in the public interest, in terms of section 38(d) of the constitution.”
With just four weeks to go before the municipal polls, the ANC is also asking the ConCourt to hear its application on an urgent basis and order the IEC to reprint ballot papers, where necessary, if its application is successful.
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