By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has filed court papers in response to the African National Congress (ANC) legal challenge over its candidate lists.
The ANC faces complete exclusion from the ballot in two municipalities and the loss of major representation in four others if the Electoral Court upholds the IEC’s rejection of 181 party’s candidates for the 4 November local government elections.
In its appeal the ANC argues that its lists and ward nominations had already been uploaded onto the IEC’s Online Candidate Nomination System before the 5pm deadline on 28 August.
The party’s appeal hinges on arguing that candidate details uploaded to the system before the deadline should be deemed validly submitted, even if final administrative submission steps were incomplete when the portal closed.
The political consequences of losing the case could extend far beyond the party’s immediate embarrassment over the failed submission.
Of the six municipalities affected, Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape are the most severely hit, with both the ANC’s ward and proportional representation (PR) candidates omitted.
The other four municipalities are not facing the same complete exclusion, but the loss of PR lists could still significantly reduce the ANC’s representation.
In 2021, the ANC won 51 of Mangaung’s 101 council seats, including 40 ward seats and 11 PR seats. In uMshwathi, it won 16 of 27 seats, with 14 coming from wards and two from its PR list.
In Walter Sisulu, the ANC won 12 of 22 seats, nine ward and three PR, while in Sundays River Valley it won 10 of 16, comprising seven ward and three PR seats.
The IEC replying affidavit paints a chaotic picture of the ANC candidate submission process. It withdrew a list an hour 16 minutes before deadline and still submitted lists with just more than 2 minutes to go to the deadline.
The ANC then ran out of time for candidates in 6 municipalities in the Eastern Cape and Free State, including Mangaung, according to the IEC.
Several ANC leaders have raised concerns about the failure, with NEC member Mondli Gungubele describing the incident as a “scandalous” failure of leadership.
“The failure to submit municipalities and a set of candidates to the IEC is a scandalous incident that cannot be joked about. As leadership, if we cannot be embarrassed by this, we aren’t worth the idea,” Gungubele posted on social media.
Mbalula also pushed back against suggestions of deliberate wrongdoing, saying anyone with evidence should bring it forward.
Meanwhile the Democratic Alliance (DA) intervened and filed papers to oppose the ANC’s legal bid, arguing that the governing party should not receive special treatment and that the electoral law must be upheld strictly.