Hope Ntanzi|Published
Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) chairperson Mosotho Moepya is addressing the nation on the Constitutional Court judgment allowing 181 ANC candidates to contest the November 4 local government elections, as the commission works to implement the ruling ahead of the polls.
The commission said Moepya would outline the way forward following Thursday’s judgment, which overturned an Electoral Court decision that had upheld the exclusion of the African National Congress (ANC) candidates.
The ruling requires the IEC to take the necessary steps to include the affected candidates in ballot papers and other relevant election processes.
The dispute arose after the ANC failed to complete the final submission of its candidate lists on the IEC’s online nomination system before the August 28 deadline.
Although the party had uploaded the candidates’ details and paid the required deposits, it did not complete the final submission step.
The affected 181 candidates are spread across six municipalities: Port St Johns, Ngquza Hill, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape, uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal and Mangaung in the Free State.
In Port St Johns and Ngquza Hill, the exclusion had left the ANC without any candidates for the local government elections.
The ANC challenged the IEC’s decision in the Electoral Court, which dismissed its case on September 16. The party subsequently approached the Constitutional Court, which ruled in its favour on Thursday.
IEC faces tight deadline to implement ruling
The judgment comes as the IEC prepares for the November 4 elections, with ballot printing already well under way and special voting scheduled for November 2 and 3.
Before the ruling, the commission warned that a significant proportion of the affected ballots had already been printed, leaving it with limited time to produce replacements if the court allowed the candidates to contest.
Moepya has since confirmed that the commission will reprint ballot papers where necessary to comply with the court order.
“When you manage elections, you've got to manage difficult moments as well. This for us brings absolute certainty and clarity on the matter that has cast doubt on what is to be done,” Moepya said.
“We welcome the decision of the court and we now need to go and get the ballots reprinted where they have been printed and to get the work completed as we should.”
The IEC said it respected the authority of the Constitutional Court and would give effect to its order. It added that further details on the implementation process would be communicated after the necessary assessments had been completed.
Moepya’s address is expected to outline the commission’s next steps as it works to include the candidates while continuing preparations for the elections.
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