ANC asks Electoral Court to rule on whether electronic nominations counted as ‘submitted’ after IEC refused recognition

The African National Congress (ANC) has taken the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to the Electoral Court, asking the court to decide whether candidate details captured on the IEC’s online nomination system should be legally regarded as having been “submitted” before the cut-off for the November 4 local government elections.

What the ANC is challenging

The ANC filed papers seeking leave to appeal the IEC’s decision after some of its candidates were not recognised as having been formally nominated, despite their details being captured on the Commission’s online nomination system. The dispute affects nominations in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State.

Core legal question: the meaning of “submitted”

In its court papers the party said the appeal concerned “only the interpretation of the word ‘submitted'” as used in sections 14 and 17 of the Local Government: Municipal Electoral Act. The ANC described the matter as “purely a question of law” and said there were no foreseeable disputes of fact.

The ANC argues that political parties have two ways of submitting nomination documents either by hand or electronically and that the same legal requirement applies to both. In the papers the party said:

“Section 14(1A) creates a single obligation and offers two alternative means of discharging it.”

The ANC added that the verb “submit” “cannot bear one meaning where the party takes route (a) and a stricter meaning where the party takes route (b)”.

IEC wording relied on by the ANC

According to the ANC’s court papers, the IEC had recorded that the cut-off “applied to both manual submission and online/electronic nominations”. The ANC is therefore asking the court to find that candidates whose details had been captured electronically before the cut-off should be regarded as having been submitted.

Technical glitches and what the ANC wants

The ANC has blamed technical glitches for its failure to complete the affected nominations before the August 28 deadline, while the IEC has rejected claims that its system malfunctioned. The ANC is not asking for the nomination period to be reopened; it wants the court to determine whether the affected nominations should be treated as having been submitted before the deadline.

Related court context

The ANC’s challenge follows an earlier Electoral Court decision in which the court rejected an application by the United Democratic Front Party to extend the candidate nomination deadline. In that matter the court ruled that the IEC did not have the power to condone a missed statutory deadline.