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.
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. It argued that accepting the candidates would disadvantage parties that had met the deadline.
The ANC has said it respects the ruling but will pursue further legal action, insisting that it sought recognition of information captured by the IEC system before the deadline rather than an extension or preferential treatment.
The November 4 vote will test whether the ANC can reverse its declining support. Its share of the municipal vote fell from 53.91% in 2016 to 46.04% in 2021, leaving 66 councils without a majority.
The ANC also lost its parliamentary majority in 2024 and formed a Government of National Unity with former rivals, including the DA.
The ANC faced a similar failure in 2021, when it failed to complete all its nominations by the deadline, affecting 93 municipalities. It was later allowed to register the candidates after the Electoral Commission of South Africa reopened submissions under a revised Covid-era election timetable.
The Constitutional Court rejected a DA challenge to the reopening but stressed that parties must comply with electoral deadlines once they are formally set.
