LOCAL ELECTIONS 2026: IEC audit trail challenges ANC’s claim of technical problems

The Electoral Commission of SA has pushed back at the ANC’s claim that technical problems caused its candidate-list failure, arguing that its records instead show the party ran out of time and left the crucial final submission step until the last minute.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has argued that its audit trail shows no system activity in two of the six municipalities at the centre of the ANC’s candidate-list dispute.

For Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns, the IEC said it found no record of activity during the final two hours before the deadline for political parties to submit their candidate lists.

This revelation has now cast further doubt on the ANC’s account that “technical problems” prevented its operators from completing the submissions.

The IEC has put the system records before the Electoral Court as it opposes an application by the ANC to have its candidate lists for the six municipalities treated as having been submitted before the 5pm deadline on 28 August.

The fallout has affected just under 200 ward and proportional representation candidates in the Mangaung metro and Lejweleputswa District Municipality in the Free State; uMshwathi Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal; and Port St Johns, Ingquza Hill and Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape.

The ANC had argued that its candidate information had already been captured and uploaded onto the IEC’s Online Candidate Nomination System before the deadline, but that operators were unable to complete the final electronic submission after experiencing problems with the system.

IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo, in his affidavit, set out how the ANC was alerted to the approaching deadline, with correspondence showing that the party received automated reminders. The affidavit also refers to IEC guidelines warning administrators of the importance of submitting a candidate list as final.

On the matter relating to the two councils, according to the IEC’s records, there was no recorded system activity in either Ngquza Hill or Port St Johns between 3pm and 5pm on 28 August, the final two hours before the nomination deadline.

This is significant because the ANC told the IEC that its administrators had encountered problems at about 4.34pm and again at 4.57pm, including being logged out of the Online Candidate Nomination System and returned to its landing page.

But the IEC’s records show that the last recorded capture for both Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns was at 10.10pm on 27 August, the evening before the deadline.

Mamabolo said he denied the “bald assertion” that the ANC encountered technical difficulties with the Online Candidate Nomination System that prevented the party from pressing the “submit as final” button for the affected submissions.

“I deny that at 16h57, the ANC’s administration were logged out of the OCNS (Online Candidate Nomination System) and returned to the landing page. This is not borne out by the objective evidence. Even if they were, they could log back in.”

He also disputes the ANC’s account of the earlier alleged interruption at 4.34pm, saying that this too was not supported by the evidence before the court.