PRETORIA, Gauteng — A significant number of political parties have missed the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) deadline to submit their candidate lists for the upcoming November 4 local government elections. With only 66 percent of the country’s 345 nationally registered political parties set to contest the vote, election management experts are raising concerns about the potential impact on proportional representation and democratic participation.
Institute of Election Management Services in Africa (IEMSA) chairperson Terry Tselane highlighted the severity of the situation, noting that over 2,000 candidates from 45 parties were captured on the online system but never officially submitted before the August 28 deadline. While high candidate turnover is not unusual in some African nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tselane emphasized that the scale of missed submissions is a major concern in the South African context, indicating that some parties may not have taken the necessary administrative steps to qualify.
Conflicting accounts have emerged regarding the cause of the missed deadline. An African National Congress (ANC) spokesperson recently claimed that their candidates were successfully uploaded to the system, only to be kicked out at the 11th hour due to technical faults. However, the IEC has firmly stated that no systemwide faults were recorded during the submission period.
When political parties and the election body present differing narratives, Tselane pointed to established legal precedents. In 2024, parties including the Labour Party and Act approached the electoral court, citing system glitches as the reason for their late submissions. Both the electoral court and the Constitutional Court dismissed these appeals, ruling that political parties failing to comply with the election timetable are the “authors of their own misfortune” and cannot expect sympathy for missing strict deadlines.
The practical consequences of missing the deadline are substantial. Of the missed candidates, 1,794 were specifically ward nominations rather than proportional representation (PR) list nominations. Tselane explained that without a submitted PR list, a political party is severely disadvantaged. Even if the party secures votes at the ward level, those votes will not count toward proportional seat allocation, effectively rendering them wasted.
Despite these administrative setbacks, the overall interest in contesting the elections has surged. The IEC received over 142,000 nominations this year, marking a 43 percent increase from the 99,000 nominations recorded in 2021.
According to Tselane, this surge is driven by a multiplicity of factors. First, the country’s economic climate has led some individuals to view politics as a viable source of five-year employment. Second, the absence of a single dominant political party has created an environment where smaller parties believe they can act as kingmakers in coalition municipalities, granting them executive leverage. Third, many individuals and grassroots parties genuinely seek to drive social and political change to uplift marginalized communities.
However, voters should not expect this expanded ballot to automatically translate into higher engagement. Tselane clarified that there is no direct correlation between a higher number of participating political parties and increased voter turnout. Drawing on observations from the DRC, where ballot papers can span multiple pages with numerous candidates, voter turnout remains disproportionately low compared to the sheer number of participating parties.
As the November 4 elections approach, the focus now shifts to how the participating parties will mobilize, and whether the courts will be tested again by those left off the ballot.
