IEC tells court ANC missed nomination deadline, rejects system ‘glitch’ defence

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has told the Electoral Court that the ANC did not submit candidate lists by the 5pm deadline on August 28 and cannot blame a system ‘glitch’, according to IOL.

Commission says party left submission to the last moment

According to IOL, the IEC filed an answering affidavit saying its records show ANC officials continued using the candidate nomination system up until the deadline but left the final “submit as final” step too late for six municipalities. The affidavit was deposed to by chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo, IOL reports.

What the IEC presented to the court

IOL says the commission attached a table drawn from its system data showing that none of the six disputed municipalities had any recorded system activity at or near 4:34pm and 4:57pm on the day of the deadline. The IEC also produced automated emails and server logs showing its servers recorded no downtime during the period the ANC said its administrators were logged out, IOL reports.

IOL reports Mamabolo said the ANC had access to the nomination platform but “simply ran out of time” and that by leaving final submissions to the last moment it “could not complete the process” and therefore did not nominate candidates for those municipalities.

ANC’s account and disputed municipalities

IOL reports the ANC said its administrators were logged out of the system at 4:34pm and again at 4:57pm on the deadline day. The commission, however, supplied automated emails showing it received finalised ward and proportional representation lists for another municipality at 4:56pm and 4:57pm, IOL says.

The municipalities named in the dispute include Sundays River Valley, Walter Sisulu, Ngquza Hill, Port St Johns, uMshwathi and Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, IOL reports. IOL says Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns are the worst hit and that in each the ANC stands to have no candidate on the ballot for the November 4 local government elections.

Commission’s legal position

IOL reports the IEC told the court its central legal argument is that there is nothing for the ANC to appeal because the commission did not make a decision to exclude lists the ANC simply did not submit those lists by the deadline using the online candidate nomination system (OCNS). “By operation of law, those candidates were not nominated,” the affidavit said, IOL reports.

System use and national figures

IOL reports the commission said it had warned the party several times before the deadline, held training sessions in June and in July across all nine provinces attended by ANC representatives, and sent a 92-page automated email two days before the deadline listing every ward list not yet submitted as final.

According to IOL, the IEC’s national figures show 142,072 candidates were nominated nationally, and a further 2,274 candidates from 45 parties were captured on the system but never finally submitted.

Procedural and third-party responses

IOL reports the ANC opposed an application by the DA to intervene in the matter; the DA’s founding affidavit, deposed to by MP Werner Horn, said “on its own version, the ANC did not submit candidates in the six municipalities” and that there is no discretion to permit candidates where they were not submitted by the deadline.

“The ANC, whilst fully aware of the dispute of fact on this aspect, has elected not to adduce any evidence whatsoever to either support its assertions about a system glitch, which is denied, or to gainsay these objective facts,” Mamabolo said, IOL reports.

IOL reports the commission will publish the final candidate list next week.