News24 | ConCourt rules for ANC in candidate lists case

The ANC succeeded in the Constitutional Court in having its candidate lists for six municipalities accepted by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).

Justice Rammaka Mathopo said the court “concluded by majority that the appeal must be upheld”.

The court ruled that the IEC’s decision to refuse acceptance of the ANC’s list of the six municipalities is set aside, and the IEC must do all things necessary to include the ANC’s lists on the ballots for the 4 November elections.

The reasons will be handed down later.

The ANC has asked the Constitutional Court to overturn an Electoral Court ruling that upheld the IEC’s exclusion of the party’s candidates from six municipalities in the 4 November local government elections. The six municipalities are Sundays River Valley, Walter Sisulu, Ngquza Hill, Port St Johns, uMshwathi and Mangaung.

The dispute arose from the ANC’s failure to press the “submit as final” button in the IEC’s Online Candidate Nomination System for six municipalities before the 17:00 deadline on 28 August 2026, despite having uploaded all required candidate information and paid the necessary deposits.

The ANC argues that the regulations require only two acts – completing the electronic forms and uploading the annexures – and that the “submit as final” button appears in no act, no regulation, no Government Gazette notice and no election timetable.

The Electoral Commission, supported by the DA, argued that uploading without final submission does not constitute a nomination in law, that the ANC knew the requirement and complied with it for 251 other municipalities, and that the IEC has no power to condone noncompliance.