Major South African party loses court fight over barred candidates

The ANC has vowed to appeal a ruling excluding more than 180 whose nominations were not finalized by the deadline South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s party has lost a court bid to place 181 candidates on the ballot for local elections in November, leaving it at risk of being shut out of two longtime strongholds.

The Electoral Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by the African National Congress (ANC) against an Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) decision to reject candidate lists from six municipalities.

The dispute arose after the ANC failed to complete the final electronic submission of the nominations before an August 28 deadline.

The party argued that the candidates’ details and supporting documents had been uploaded before the cutoff, but technical problems had prevented officials from finalizing the process.

It said pressing the system’s “submit as final” button was an administrative step rather than a legal requirement.

Ahead of the ruling, Ramaphosa called the problem “containable,” saying technical glitches affecting several parties should not deprive voters of their preferred candidates.

The IEC rejected the argument, saying information that had merely been captured, uploaded or saved did not constitute a formal submission.

Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo told the court that the online system had recorded no downtime during the period in question.

He said the ANC had also successfully finalized lists for other municipalities shortly before the deadline.

The 181 candidates are from six municipalities across the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State.

They include 130 proportional-representation nominees and 51 ward candidates.

READ MORE: South African president weighs court action against electoral commission The ruling could shut the ANC out of both ballots in its Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns strongholds, where it won 46 of 64 and 31 of 39 council seats respectively in 2021.

In Mangaung, uMshwathi, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley, its ward candidates remain, but its proportional-representation lists have been excluded.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), South Africa’s second-largest party, opposed the ANC’s application after being allowed to join the case.