ANC Challenges Exclusion of 181 Local Election Candidates at Constitutional Court
- The ANC argued before the Constitutional Court that the exclusion of 181 municipal election candidates turns on how submission rules are interpreted, not system failures
- The party completed all required steps on the IEC portal before the deadline but administrators did not click the final 'submit as final' button
- The appeal follows an Electoral Court ruling in favour of the IEC, which found no technical glitches were recorded on its system
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SOUTH AFRICA — The ANC's Constitutional Court challenge over the exclusion of 181 Local Government Election candidates centres on the interpretation of submission rules rather than any malfunction of the IEC's online portal, the party's legal representative argued in court.
According to eNCA, Advocate Daniel Berger told the court that the dispute is fundamentally about how the law governing submission procedures should be read, not about whether the Electoral Commission of South Africa's (IEC) platform experienced technical problems.
What the ANC says went wrong
According to Berger, the party completed every step required before the deadline: forms were filled in, all supporting documents were uploaded, and deposits were paid. The sole omission was that administrators did not click the final "submit as final" button on the portal, which the IEC treated as a failure to submit.
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Berger was careful to note that raising the issue of technical difficulties was not an attack on the commission's systems. "The Commission admits that the ANC called its helpline shortly before the deadline and does not contradict the ANC's account of the call," he said. He added that the party accepts the IEC's account of how the system functioned, but maintained that it remains wrong to penalise the party for explaining the difficulties it encountered.
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Electoral Court previously ruled in IEC's favour
The Constitutional Court hearing follows an earlier Electoral Court ruling that sided with the commission. That court found no technical glitches had been reported on the IEC system at the time of the submission deadline, upholding the exclusion of the candidates.
The ANC's appeal asks the Constitutional Court to reconsider whether the strict application of the submission requirement, particularly the failure to complete a single final step on a digital portal after all substantive requirements had been met, justifies barring 181 candidates from participating in local government elections.
Electoral Court defends rejecting ANC bid
In a related article, Briefly News reported on the Electoral Court’s decision to reject the ANC’s bid to have incomplete candidate nominations recognised as final submissions.
The court warned that treating provisional entries as final could undermine fairness and certainty in the electoral process. Its ruling confirms that parties must complete their nominations before the statutory deadline.
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Source: Briefly News
