A stand-off is continuing between the ANC and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) over the party’s claim that its failure to register the names of some candidates for the upcoming local government elections was due to technical failures on the online portal — a claim refuted by the IEC.
During a media briefing held at its Centurion headquarters, the IEC also denied ever promising to entertain late candidate submissions by the ANC or any of the 45 political parties it said had missed the deadline.
“There are 45 parties who have captured but have not submitted, and we will be communicating with those parties in particular bilaterally so that we can make them aware. And they can then decide on any course of action they think may be appropriate,” said Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo.
Mamabolo stopped short of labelling the ANC’s claims as lies.
“Whatever statement they issued, they must clarify that statement. As the Commission, we are bound by the election timetable and we want to observe the terms of the election timetable. On the 16th, we’ll issue all the lists for everybody,” said the CEO.
The ANC is currently on a media tour, insisting that technical failures were solely responsible for its inability to upload the candidates’ names.
“We did upload all of the candidates. It’s important to assure our members, supporters and our community that participated in the candidate selection process that took place. We did upload all of our candidates from all nine provinces and regions on time.
“The 28th of August was the final day of submission of the final list. Why it took place then is because the ANC undergoes an extensive process of vetting and interviewing and holding community meetings. All of this takes time. We are very robust in how we’ve improved our candidate selection process. The very last portion of the batch is when the system started kicking them out. That was before 5pm.
“We are not discussing here a lack of compliance on the part of the African National Congress with regard to meeting the deadline, but a batch of names on the uploaded list that were kicked out. We are asking the IEC to consider for submission all those candidates who had already been captured in the IEC system but were kicked out,” said National Spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu.
She said the party was genuinely aggrieved and was not necessarily attacking the Commission.
“This ties in with the question of: are we fighting with the IEC? We are not. We respect and continue to have full confidence in the integrity of the IEC-run processes. It continues to be one of the most important institutions and hallmarks of our democracy, and that is why we hope that constructive engagement can take place, as well as an investigation into whether there were technological challenges that were not foreseen,” she said.
“There can be a number of glitches on the internet ecosystem — bandwidth, network, anything — but our report doesn’t show there being any technical glitches on the day,” said Mamabolo, referring specifically to 28 August 2026, the final day for submissions, when the ANC uploaded the names of its candidates.
The ANC has avoided addressing what appears to be a deeper political standoff with its Eastern Cape structures. The province was affected by the failure to submit candidates, amid disagreements over who should be included on the list, with preferences defined along factional lines following the now-failed provincial conference that was halted by the courts.