The African National Congress (ANC) has lost its Electoral Court challenge to have 181 of its candidates reinstated for the 4 November 2026 Local Government Elections.
The court dismissed the party’s appeal on Wednesday after the ANC challenged the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) decision to exclude the candidates from the ballot in the affected municipalities.
The dispute centres on whether the ANC had legally submitted its candidate nominations before the IEC’s 28 August, 5pm deadline.
The ANC argued that the candidates’ information had been captured on the IEC’s online nomination system, supporting documents had been uploaded and the required deposits had been paid.
However, the party did not complete the final “submit as final” step before the deadline.
The IEC maintained that capturing and uploading candidate information did not constitute formal submission of the candidate lists.
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula defended the party’s position last week, insisting that the court challenge was not an attempt to seek special treatment.
“We are not in court because we are asking for a favour because we missed the deadline,” Mbalula said.
He said the ANC had successfully submitted the vast majority of its candidates but that a technical problem had affected the 181 candidates.
The ANC argued that the candidates’ information was already on the IEC system and that the failure to complete the final submission process was linked to a technical glitch.
The IEC disputed this interpretation, maintaining that the prescribed electronic submission process had not been completed before the deadline.
The Electoral Court has now dismissed the ANC’s appeal, leaving the affected candidates excluded from the election unless the party succeeds with a further legal challenge.
The ruling affects the ANC’s candidate lists in the municipalities concerned and comes as the IEC moves towards finalising candidates ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
