The Electoral Court has dismissed the ANC’s appeal against the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC) decision to exclude 181 of its candidates from contesting the November 4 local government elections.
The order was issued on Wednesday by judges Modiba, Mangcu-Lockwood and Phooko after Tuesday’s hearing. The court also granted the DA leave to intervene in the matter and made no order as to costs.
The ANC had challenged the IEC’s exclusion of its candidates in six municipalities after the party failed to complete the final submission process on the commission’s online candidate nomination system before the August 28 deadline.
The dispute centred on whether the ANC’s candidate information, which had been captured on the system before the deadline, constituted a valid submission despite the party not completing the finalisation process.
The ANC argued the requirement to press the system’s “submit as final” button was not expressly contained in the electoral legislation or regulations.
The IEC opposed the appeal, maintaining the finalisation process formed part of the prescribed system for submitting candidate nominations.
The court has now dismissed the ANC’s appeal.
The order also deals with an application by the African Transformation Movement (ATM) to intervene in the case. The court declared the application was not properly submitted before it because it had been brought late, contrary to the court’s directions issued on September 9, and without an application for condonation.
The court made four orders: the DA was granted leave to intervene, the ANC’s appeal was dismissed, the ATM’s application to intervene was declared not properly before the court, and there was no order as to costs.
Business Day