ANC vs IEC: party takes candidate list dispute to Electoral Court - IOL

The ANC is set to provide an update on its candidate nominations after challenging the IEC’s decision over candidates whose submissions were not formally completed.

The ANC will brief the media on its candidate nominations for the November 4 local government elections, after filing papers with the Electoral Court challenging the IEC’s decision over its candidate lists.

The briefing will provide an update on the party’s councillor candidates and its preparations for the upcoming elections.

The media briefing comes after the ANC filed an application with the Electoral Court, challenging the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) decision to exclude nominations that were not formally submitted by the August 28 deadline.

The party argues that technical problems with the IEC’s online system affected some candidate submissions.

In its court papers, the ANC argues that the word “submitted” in the Local Government: Municipal Electoral Act should apply equally to nominations submitted by hand and electronically.

The party wants the affected party lists and ward nominations to be treated as having been lawfully and timeously submitted.

The IEC has maintained that candidates whose information was captured on its system but not formally submitted by the deadline cannot be included in the elections.

The electoral body previously confirmed that 2,274 potential candidates from 45 political parties had their details captured, but were not formally submitted.

Of these, 480 were proportional representation candidates and 1,794 were ward candidates.

The dispute has affected ANC nominations in municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Free State, putting their participation in the elections at risk.

President Cyril Ramaphosa previously acknowledged the technical problems affecting candidate submissions and said the matter could be taken to the Electoral Court.

“There were some glitches, glitches with regard to just the interface with the IEC system,” Ramaphosa said.

“The candidates' list was there for the whole country. They were submitted, and in regard to those areas there were some glitches.”

Ramaphosa said the issue was not limited to the ANC and that a solution should be found so technical problems did not prevent voters from being able to choose their preferred candidates.

“This is not only affecting the ANC. There are a number of other parties (affected), I'm told 34. So there should be a solution to be found, because the technical glitches should not in the end deprive our people from being able to vote for their candidates,” he said.

The Electoral Court, as a specialist institution, should be able to resolve the dispute, Ramaphosa said.