ANC Loses Electoral Court Battle Over Candidate List Dispute
The ANC has lost its Electoral Court challenge against the IEC over the submission of 181 councillor candidates ahead of South Africa’s 4 November 2026 local government elections.
BLOEMFONTEIN — The African National Congress (ANC) has lost its legal challenge against the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) over the submission of its councillor candidate lists for South Africa’s upcoming local government elections. The Electoral Court in Bloemfontein dismissed the ANC’s application on Wednesday.
The dispute followed problems encountered by the ANC during the submission of its candidates before the 28 August deadline.
The party argued that technical difficulties with the IEC’s electronic system prevented it from completing the final submission of some of its candidates. The IEC disputed the claim, maintaining that the system was functioning and that the required submission process had not been completed.
Dispute over 181 candidates
The case involved at least 181 ANC candidates whose names were not successfully captured and uploaded on the IEC system before the deadline.
The affected candidates were linked to six municipalities. During the court proceedings, ANC lawyers argued that the party had already entered candidate information into the system and that the final submission button should not determine whether the nominations were legally valid.
The IEC rejected that argument, saying parties were required to complete the prescribed submission process before the deadline.
The commission also rejected the ANC’s claim that a technical glitch was responsible for the failure to complete the process.
Court challenge
The ANC approached the Electoral Court seeking an order that would allow the affected candidates to participate in the 4 November 2026 local government elections.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the ANC maintained that its candidates were being unlawfully excluded from the elections. The IEC opposed the application and argued that electoral deadlines and submission requirements had to be applied consistently.
The court reserved judgment after hearing arguments from the parties.
On Wednesday, SABC News reported that the Electoral Court had dismissed the ANC’s application.
What the ruling means
The judgment represents a setback for the ANC in its preparations for the local government elections, particularly in the municipalities affected by the candidate-list dispute.
It also brings the focus back to the importance of the IEC’s candidate-submission procedures and the legal deadlines governing South Africa’s elections.
The ANC had attributed the failure to complete the process to technical difficulties, while the IEC maintained that the problem was not a system failure but the failure to complete the required submission process before the deadline.
The Electoral Court’s decision now leaves the ANC to deal with the consequences of the rejected application as preparations continue for the November elections.
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