South Africa – The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of the African National Congress (ANC) in its dispute with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) over an online candidate nomination procedure, allowing 181 of the party’s candidates to contest the November 4 local government elections in six municipalities.
The court set aside an earlier Electoral Court ruling that upheld the IEC’s decision to exclude the candidates because the ANC had failed to click the “Submit as Final” button on its online nomination system before the August 28 deadline.
The ANC maintained that it had completed the required nomination forms, uploaded supporting documents and paid the necessary deposits before the deadline.
Its legal team argued that the final confirmation button was not expressly required by electoral legislation.
BREAKING NEWS | The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of the ANC in the excluded candidate list dispute, ordering the IEC to include the affected wards on ballot papers for the November local government elections. https://t.co/GEb2j7u6zg
— SABC News (@SABCNews) October 15, 2026
Advocate Daniel Berger, representing the ANC, argued that the party had complied with the law because the candidate information was already available on the IEC’s database before nominations closed.
The ruling allows the ANC to field ward and proportional representation candidates in six municipalities: Sundays River Valley, Walter Sisulu, Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape, uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal, and Mangaung in the Free State.
However, the decision comes with logistical implications for the IEC, which will have to reprint ballot papers in the affected municipalities to accommodate the reinstated candidates.
According to Mail & Guardian, the ANC argued that the button requirement was not contained in the relevant legislation or regulations. Berger said the party was seeking neither an extension nor special treatment, but wanted its compliance assessed according to the law.
ANC VS IEC | “The Constitution has spoken, and it has spoken for the people of this country,” says ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, who is emotional and brought to tears following the party’s victory in the Constitutional Court. https://t.co/2zYc7pXGtc
— SABC News (@SABCNews) October 15, 2026
The IEC, meanwhile, maintained that the online nomination system had been in use since 2016 and that parties were required to complete the final submission step. The commission argued that the process was necessary to distinguish provisional candidate information from officially submitted lists.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), which opposed the ANC’s appeal, warned that allowing the candidates onto the ballot could have wider consequences for election administration and the consistent application of nomination rules.
The Constitutional Court has indicated that its reasons for the ruling will be delivered at a later stage, leaving the detailed legal basis for its decision to be clarified in a subsequent judgment.
The decision represents a significant victory for the ANC ahead of the local government elections, while raising broader questions about the relationship between electoral legislation and the digital systems used to administer nominations.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
