THE ELECTORAL COURT'S DISMISSAL OF THE ANC'S APPLICATION AGAINST THE IEC
BY: CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS | ONLINE EDITOR
THE ELECTORAL COURT'S DISMISSAL OF THE ANC'S APPLICATION AGAINST THE IEC
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes and welcomes the decision of the Electoral Court to dismiss the African National Congress's (ANC) application challenging the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa's refusal to accommodate its late submission of candidates for the 4 November 2026 Local Government Elections.
The ruling is a victory for electoral integrity, for the rule of law, and for every party and every voter who respected the deadlines set out by the IEC. On 28 August 2026, at 5pm, the statutory deadline closed for political parties to submit their ward candidate nominations and party lists through the IEC's Online Candidate Nomination System.
Every party contesting the November elections knew this deadline months in advance, it was not sprung on anyone. The ANC failed to complete its submissions for six municipalities affecting 181 of its candidates. Rather than accept responsibility for this failure, the ANC claimed that "technical glitches" on the IEC's system prevented its administrators from clicking the final "submit" button, and approached the Electoral Court demanding that its incomplete submissions be recognised as validly made.
The IEC's response exposed this excuse for what it was. The Commission's own server logs showed zero downtime on the nomination platform before the deadline, and demonstrated that ANC officials were actively uploading candidate information for other municipalities right up until 5pm, proof that the system was fully operational the entire time.
Tellingly, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula was later forced to admit that the party's own list had contained inaccurately captured identity numbers. The "glitch" the ANC blamed on the IEC was, in truth, the ANC's own administrative failure to manage a process it had known about for months.
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