The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of the African National Congress (ANC), ordering the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to include 181 of the party’s candidates in the 4 November local government elections.
The ruling, handed down on Thursday, 15 October, follows the ANC’s appeal against an Electoral Court judgment that upheld the IEC’s decision to exclude the candidates from the ballot.
The ANC approached the apex court after failing to complete the final submission of its candidate lists for six municipalities before the deadline.
CONCOURT RULES IN FAVOUR OF ANC OVER IEC CANDIDATE LISTS
The dispute centres on the ANC’s failure to click the “Submit as Final” button on the IEC’s online candidate nomination system before the 28 August deadline.
The party argued that it had uploaded the details of its nominated candidates and paid the required deposits before the deadline. It maintained that these steps demonstrated its intention to contest the elections and that the failure to complete the final submission process should not disqualify its candidates.
The IEC, however, argued that the nominations had not been formally submitted. It also pointed out that other political parties had uploaded candidate information without completing the final submission process and that it could not presume that all such parties intended to contest the elections.
The affected candidates are contesting positions in six municipalities: Sundays River Valley, Walter Sisulu, Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape, uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal, and Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in the Free State.
The Electoral Court previously ruled in favour of the IEC, prompting the ANC to appeal to the Constitutional Court.
IEC ORDERED TO INCLUDE FORMER RULING PARTY’S CANDIDATES ON BALLOTS
On Thursday, Constitutional Court Justice Rammaka Mathopo said the IEC’s decision to reject the ANC’s candidate lists in the six municipalities had been set aside.
“The first respondent, which is the IEC, is directed to do all things necessary to include the party lists and ward candidate nominations mentioned in paragraph four of this order, and the lists and nominations onto the ballot papers and all other relevant processes for the purposes of the 4 November 2026 local elections,” he said.
The ruling means the IEC must take the necessary steps to include the affected ANC candidates in the electoral process ahead of the upcoming local government elections.
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. pic.twitter.com/GEb2j7u6zg
— SABC News (@SABCNews) October 15, 2026