IEC must print 181 ANC candidates after court ruling

The Electoral Commission of South Africa must now insert 181 ANC councillor candidates onto ballot papers in six municipalities, after the Constitutional Court on Thursday overturned an Electoral Court decision that had excluded them. The commission says its work of delivering the elections continues without interruption and that it fears no party.

The Constitutional Court granted the ANC’s appeal and directed the IEC to take all necessary steps to place the affected candidate nominations on ballot papers and into other relevant election processes. The task now falls to the commission’s officials to process those nominations in time.

Speaking at a briefing on Friday, IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya said the commission had accepted the judgment and congratulated the ANC on its victory. Its responsibility, he said, was to return to its work and fulfil its obligations.

The dispute itself was rooted in an administrative breakdown. The ANC failed to complete the final submission process on the IEC’s online candidate nomination system before the deadline, and the party subsequently challenged the IEC’s decision, arguing that its candidates’ details had in fact been uploaded to the system.

Asked whether the commission feared a backlash from the ANC, Moepya said the IEC had never been intimidated into doing its work. He noted that the ANC, through its secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, had indicated that it respected the IEC, adding that the commission likewise respected the party.

“We have never been intimidated by the ANC. When they raised this matter with us, we were clear that there had never been a reason to fight outside the law,” Moepya said.

He added: “We fear no one that deals with the commission. There is no reason to do so. We have maintained that this is our interpretation and understanding of the law and that is how the matter has unfolded.”

Meanwhile, the consequences of the ruling stretch beyond the ANC. Moepya announced that 32 other political parties in a similar position would also be allowed to contest the elections. Those parties had intended to participate in 121 municipalities across the country, and their nominations covered all three ballot types: metropolitan, local and district.

“As with the ANC, these parties had nominated compliant candidates and paid election deposits but had not submitted their final candidate lists,” the chairperson said.

The commission explained its reasoning in a statement, saying its decision was consistent with the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections, as well as the importance of upholding the fundamental principle of equal treatment.

“Consistent with the constitutional imperative for free and fair elections, as well as the importance of upholding the inherent principle of parity of treatment, the commission has resolved that the 32 similarly situated parties must be deemed to have lawfully submitted their candidates,” the commission said.

The parties affected span six municipalities across three provinces. In the Eastern Cape they are Sundays River Valley, Walter Sisulu, Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns; in KwaZulu-Natal, uMshwathi; and in the Free State, Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality.

With the court’s direction on the ANC’s candidates and the commission’s parallel decision on the 32 other parties, the operational picture ahead of the elections is now one of expanded ballot access and completion of nomination processing. The IEC has stated plainly that delivering the vote remains its singular obligation, and the test ahead is whether the ballots can be finalised in time for polling day.