JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng — The Electoral Court is currently grappling with the legal definition of a valid candidate submission under South African electoral law, following an application by the African National Congress (ANC) to compel the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to register candidates uploaded to the Online Candidates Nomination System as formally submitted. The high-stakes legal challenge centers on the exclusion of 181 ANC candidates from the upcoming November 4 ballot, sparking a fierce debate over statutory compliance and digital submission protocols.
During Tuesday’s hearing, ANC legal representatives argued that technical glitches were secondary to the core issue, maintaining that the party had successfully met the August 28 deadline. ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has consistently defended the party’s nomination process, asserting that the requirement to click a “submit as final” button is not mandated by the Municipal Electoral Act or its accompanying regulations. The ANC contends that the IEC has improperly elevated an unpromulgated feature of its online system into a statutory precondition for determining the validity of political party uploads.
According to the ANC’s legal team, the uploading of annexes is not in dispute, as the meaning of that action is universally understood. The sole issue for the court’s decision is whether “completing the electronic forms” legally necessitates pressing the “submit as final” button.
However, this argument faced rigorous scrutiny from the bench. Professor Moses Phooko, sitting on the Electoral Court, questioned the consistency of the ANC’s stance. He noted that if the “submit as final” button is not legally mandated, the party would have adopted the same procedure across all municipalities, leaving uploaded documents without pressing the button. Instead, the ANC complied with the full procedure for other candidates.
In response, IEC legal representatives emphasized that the commission explicitly included this step in its guidelines. The IEC noted that it has conducted nationwide outreach, explicitly instructing political parties to ensure they press the final submission button, a directive clearly outlined in the commission’s code and operational manuals.
Furthermore, the IEC argued that this matter does not engage the jurisdiction of the specialist court, asserting that a Chapter 9 institution does not have the discretionary power in law to make an arbitrary decision to accept or decline political party nominations outside of strict statutory compliance. The IEC also stressed that the ANC at no point registered any reservations with the system during the submission window.
Legal counsel for the IEC reminded the court that judicial precedent does not permit a situation where parties harbor misgivings about the lawfulness or validity of a process, take their chances hoping to win, and only raise debates about the unlawfulness of specifications or rules of engagement after an unsuccessful outcome.
The hearing highlighted the competing constitutional values at play: ensuring free and fair elections versus preventing the disenfranchisement of voters. The IEC maintained that the rules for electronic submission were formulated well in advance for all parties to follow.
“We are dealing with a case of one party who, for whatever reasons, could not or did not comply with the rules of the game,” the IEC’s legal team argued. They posed a critical question to the court: is it fair to permit one party to continue participating in the election under circumstances where all other competing parties successfully complied with the established rules?
The Electoral Court is expected to hand down its order on Wednesday, with detailed written reasons to follow at a later stage. The ruling will set a significant precedent for how digital candidate submissions are interpreted under South African electoral law.
