SA court confirms exclusion of election candidates

South Africa’s Electoral Court upheld the exclusion of some candidates from a local-government vote scheduled for November 4, putting the country’s biggest political party at risk of losing control of several town councils.

More than 142 000 people were nominated to contest 10 526 municipal seats by the time the process closed on August 28. While 2 274 names were captured, they weren’t properly submitted on the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s computer system, rendering them ineligible to run.

The African National Congress blamed the omission of some of its candidates on a technical glitch and filed a lawsuit challenging their exclusion, but the commission said due process wasn’t followed. The Electoral Court ruled in the commission’s favour on Wednesday.

The ANC plans to appeal the ruling.

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

More than 29 million people have registered to cast ballots, with 546 parties fielding candidates for seats.