ANC takes candidate-registration dispute with IEC to Electoral Court
The ANC has gone to the Electoral Court after 181 nominations across six councils were not captured before the IEC deadline.
The African National Congress has approached the Electoral Court after some of its candidates were not registered for the 4 November local government elections.
The party says technical problems with the Electoral Commission's candidate-submission system prevented it from completing registrations in some municipalities. The IEC has rejected that account.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party had successfully registered 9,128 candidates across all nine provinces. He said six councils and 181 nominations in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mangaung were affected by the dispute.
Former IEC chairperson Terry Tselane told SABC Radio that an election timetable can be amended only under specific conditions. He cited a 2021 Constitutional Court decision which held that the commission could alter a timetable in the interests of free and fair elections or where election day had been postponed.
The Electoral Court will decide the ANC's challenge. Neither the party's account of the technical problem nor the IEC's rejection of it is presented as a judicial finding.
The dispute comes as parties prepare candidate lists for ward and proportional-representation contests. The IEC has said the published timetable applies to all contestants.
No hearing date or ruling had been announced in the reports reviewed on Tuesday afternoon.