The African National Congress (ANC) has taken its dispute with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to the Electoral Court, seeking the inclusion of 181 candidates ahead of the 4 November 2026 local government elections.
The case, being heard on Tuesday, centres on the ANC’s failure to complete the electronic submission of its candidate lists for six municipalities before the 28 August deadline.
The party argues that the details of the affected candidates had already been captured on the IEC’s online system before the deadline, but technical problems prevented the submissions from being finalised.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party was not seeking an extension of the deadline or permission to nominate new candidates.
Instead, the ANC wants the court to determine whether candidate information uploaded onto the IEC’s system before the deadline should be regarded as a valid submission.
The dispute involves 130 proportional representation candidates and 51 ward candidates across six municipalities in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State.
However, the IEC has rejected the ANC’s version of events, maintaining that its electronic candidate management system was operational and that the ANC was still making changes to its candidate lists shortly before the deadline.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and African Transformation Movement (ATM) have also sought to intervene in the matter, arguing that election rules must be applied consistently to all political parties.
The IEC is expected to publish the final candidate lists on Wednesday.
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