Candidate-list row threatens ANC’s election performance

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has warned that the party’s performance in the November 4 local government elections could be affected if its Constitutional Court challenge over the exclusion of 181 proportional-representation candidates fails.

The ANC is seeking to overturn an Electoral Court ruling that dismissed its challenge against the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) over the candidates, whose names were not included on the final lists.

The dispute affects candidates in six municipalities: Port St Johns, Ngquza Hill, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape, uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal and Mangaung in the Free State.

The Electoral Court dismissed the ANC’s appeal last month after finding that candidate information captured on the IEC’s online system before the August 28 deadline did not constitute formal submission because the final submission process had not been completed.

Mbalula said the ANC was hopeful that the Constitutional Court would rule in its favour.

“Should it not be successful, of course it will have a negative impact, and that’s not what we are hoping for,” he told the SABC at an ANC National Working Committee meeting in the Eastern Cape.

Mbalula maintained that the candidate information submitted by the ANC should have been recognised by the IEC.

“We are not asking anything before the courts that is not lawful. All we are asking for is that what was submitted must be recognised as delivered. That is the matter.”

The IEC has disputed claims that the omission resulted from a technical failure, with the commission maintaining that the ANC did not complete the required submission process before the deadline.

The candidate-list dispute comes amid other legal challenges involving the ANC in the Eastern Cape, including litigation concerning its internal processes and branch meetings.

Mbalula rejected suggestions that the legal disputes indicated a collapse of the ANC’s structures in the province, saying the party remained operational and was campaigning ahead of the elections.

He said ANC structures in the province had continued with their work, including addressing service-delivery issues and preparing for the local government elections. Mbalula also said the party was processing a court order concerning its membership data and that there was no reason to believe the information was being withheld improperly.