ANC doubles down on IEC glitch claims, insists candidate lists were submitted on time
The ANC is disputing claims by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) that it failed to submit candidate lists for the 2026 local government elections on time. The party insists its uploads were complete before the deadline, despite the IEC stating that thousands of candidates were not properly submitted.
Why it matters
This dispute threatens the ANC's ability to contest key municipalities, potentially impacting the political landscape of the 2026 local elections.
The ANC has doubled down on its claim that the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC) system experienced technical glitches on the day it was meant to submit its list of nominated candidates, which led to the party’s failure to submit candidate lists for certain municipalities.
In a statement on Thursday, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the party did not miss the commission’s deadline and that the party’s upload of the lists was 100% complete before 17:00 on 28 August.
This is in contrast to the commission’s earlier claim that its online system had no issues on the day.
It stated that 2 274 potential candidates were captured but not finally submitted on the Online Candidate Nomination System (OCNS) by 17:00 last Friday.
The IEC said the 480 proportional representation (PR) and 1 794 ward candidates were affected, as well as 45 parties.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in