ANC loses Electoral Court fight over 181 councillor candidates

The ANC’s bid to review the **Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC) **decision not to reopen the submissions process for councillor candidates has been dismissed by the courts.

The Electoral Court handed down its judgement on Wednesday, but the ANC has already indicated it will not take this decision lying down.

The party is set to appeal the Electoral Court’s in the hopes of having 181 of its councillor candidates registered on time for the November 4 local government elections.

“Having considered the judgement, the ANC will exercise its legal rights and pursue the appropriate appeal process,” the party said.

“Our legal representatives will engage the court on the legal questions arising from the judgement.”

The court held a virtual hearing on Tuesday afternoon, where lawyers for the ANC and IEC argued over whether candidate information captured on the commission’s electronic system before the August 28 deadline could be regarded as validly submitted.

READ: Inside the chaos behind the KZN ANC’s list capturing process

The dispute stems from the ANC’s failure to complete the final electronic submission of the affected candidates before the 5pm deadline. The party initially blamed technical glitches, with secretary-general Fikile Mbalula later acknowledging that inaccuracies in captured identity numbers had also contributed to the problems.

The ANC said it respected the court’s decision but maintained that its case was not an attempt to secure preferential treatment from the IEC.

“We have consistently maintained that this matter is not about seeking preferential treatment for the ANC, nor about asking the Electoral Commission to change the rules for the benefit of our organisation,” the party said.

“It concerns the legal status of candidate information that the ANC maintains was captured into the IEC’s electronic system before the prescribed deadline.”

The party has urged its members to remain calm and disciplined while the legal process continues, warning against public commentary that could prejudice or interfere with the case.

“The ANC remains fully committed to the 2026 Local Government Elections. Our focus remains on presenting our programme to South Africans, engaging communities, and earning their support through our record and our policies for the betterment of communities,” it said.

READ: Fikile Mbalula rejects claims ANC wants special treatment from IEC

The dispute affects 181 ANC candidates across six municipalities in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. The affected candidates comprise 130 proportional representation candidates and 51 ward candidates.

In the Eastern Cape, the affected municipalities include Ngquza Hill, Port St Johns, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley. In KwaZulu-Natal, the dispute involves uMshwathi, while in the Free State it affects the Mangaung metropolitan municipality.

In Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns, both ward and proportional representation candidates are affected, while in Mangaung, uMshwathi, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley, the dispute centres on the ANC’s proportional representation lists, with ward candidates remaining on the ballot.

The ANC has argued that the affected candidates’ information had already been entered into the IEC’s online system before the deadline and that the failure to complete the final submission was linked to technical difficulties.

The IEC has disputed this version, maintaining that capturing candidate information was not the same as formally submitting the nominations and that the final submission step had not been completed before the deadline.