The Electoral Court has dismissed the African National Congress’s application to have 181 councillor candidates included on the ballot for the upcoming local government elections.
The ruling means the affected candidates will not contest the 4 November elections in the six municipalities at the centre of the dispute.
The case arose after the ANC failed to complete the final submission of candidate nominations by the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) 5pm deadline on 28 August.
The affected nominations involve six municipalities in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. They include Ngquza Hill, Port St Johns, Walter Sisulu, Sundays River Valley, uMshwathi and Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality.
The ANC argued that the candidates’ information had been captured and uploaded onto the IEC’s online candidate nomination system before the deadline, but that technical problems prevented party officials from completing the final submission.
The IEC disputed this explanation, maintaining that uploading candidate information was not the same as formally submitting the nominations. The commission said parties were required to use the system’s final submission function before the deadline.
The Electoral Court has now rejected the ANC’s challenge.
The ANC has indicated that it intends to appeal the judgment.
The IEC is expected to proceed with the publication of the final candidate lists ahead of the 4 November local government elections.