ANC will oppose DA bid to intervene in Electoral Court challenge over candidate nominations

The African National Congress (ANC) has instructed its lawyers to oppose the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) application to intervene in the party’s Electoral Court challenge over disputed candidate nominations for the November 4 local government elections. The ANC says the DA is not a party to the Electoral Commission’s decision that the ANC is challenging and therefore lacks the legal interest the court must protect.

ANC rejects DA’s standing to intervene

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the party has told its legal representatives to oppose the DA’s application, arguing the electoral body was already defending the decision being challenged and that the DA was not a party to that decision.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the DA had “no quarrel with the Commission and no quarrel with the law.” He added:

“Its quarrel is with the voters of six municipalities who might choose somebody other than the DA.”

Dispute centres on whether lists were lodged before the deadline

The ANC says the central question is whether its candidate lists were submitted before the deadline under the Municipal Electoral Act and that the DA had “no legal interest that the court needed to protect.” The party said its application would not remove any DA candidate from the ballot:

“Nothing the ANC asks for takes a single DA candidate off any ballot.”

Numbers cited by the ANC and the IEC

The ANC said, citing the IEC’s own count, that 2,274 candidates from 45 parties were affected by the issue, and that 44 of those parties are not the ANC.

The party said it had lodged 9,128 candidates, of whom 8,947 were accepted by the IEC at lodgement. The ANC said those candidates covered 97% of wards nationally, while its proportional representation lists covered 90% of those seats.

ANC asks for equal treatment and warns of timetable risks

The ANC said it was not seeking to reopen the nomination process or to obtain special treatment, but asked that candidates whose details were on the IEC’s system before 5pm on August 28 be counted, and that the same approach apply to all affected parties.

The party warned that further court proceedings could affect the IEC’s timetable, noting that the IEC is scheduled to compile the final candidate list on September 16 and to hold the ballot paper draw on September 23. The ANC said additional court steps could put those dates at risk and affect candidates and voters in the municipalities concerned.

Rights and precedent

The ANC framed its case in terms of electoral participation, saying electoral law should promote participation rather than narrow voter choice. The party said the question before the court is what was submitted before the deadline and that this matter belongs to the court, the Commission and the parties whose candidates are affected, not to a party that might benefit from their exclusion.

Mbalula said the ANC had chosen to resolve the dispute through the courts and would “abide by the outcome.” He added:

“A vote is won on the ballot and it is lost on the ballot. It must not be lost at a confirmation step on a website, and it must not be lost because a rival party found it convenient. The Court will decide, and the ANC will abide by what the court decides.”