ANC takes IEC candidate-list fight to Electoral Court before Nov. 4
The ANC filed papers with the Electoral Court challenging the IEC’s exclusion of candidate nominations that were captured online but not formally submitted by the Aug. 28 deadline — with a media briefing set for Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Captured versus submitted
IOL’s Sept. 8 reporting says the ANC argues the word “submitted” in the Municipal Electoral Act should cover both hand and electronic lodgements already captured on the IEC system. The party is not asking to reopen nominations wholesale — it wants those in-system records treated as on time.
The technical glitches should not in the end deprive our people from being able to vote for their candidates.
Not only an ANC problem
Ramaphosa said dozens of parties were affected. The IEC’s own tally of 2,274 unsubmitted-but-captured nominees across 45 parties undercuts any claim this is a single-party clerical failure — even as ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula faces internal heat over omissions flagged in Sunday papers.
Court backdrop
The Electoral Court recently rejected a United Democratic Front bid to extend the nomination deadline, holding the IEC cannot simply condone a missed statutory cut-off. That precedent is why the ANC’s framing — interpret “submitted,” don’t rewrite the calendar — matters for how judges may thread the needle before Nov. 4.