Electoral Court Upholds Exclusion of 181 ANC Candidates

South Africa's Electoral Commission has finalised the candidate list for the November 4 local government elections, confirming the exclusion of 181 African National Congress candidates after the Electoral Court dismissed the party's legal challenge. The ruling, issued on September 16, upheld the commission's decision to disqualify the candidates for missing a mandatory submission deadline. The dispute centres on nominations for candidates across six municipalities, including Sundays River Valley and Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape, uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal, and Mangaung in the Free State. The ANC's candidates were excluded because their nominations were not formally submitted on the Electoral Commission's online system before the 5pm deadline on August 28. The party argued that capturing and saving candidate information on the system before the deadline constituted a valid submission, but the commission and the court ruled that a final electronic submission step was required. Electoral Commission chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo stated that the court's decision provides certainty about who is eligible to participate.