The ANC will learn on Thursday whether it can field 181 candidates in six municipalities in next month’s local government elections, when the Constitutional Court delivers judgment on its list debacle.
All eyes will be on the apex court at 10am on Thursday after it heard urgent arguments on Monday.
The party is appealing an Electoral Court ruling that backed the IEC’s decision to throw out its lists in six municipalities after officials failed to press the final “submit as final” button on the commission’s portal.
The ANC insists it complied with the law. It argues that missing a single button click should not cost it the right to contest the November 4 elections in those councils.
Advocate Daniel Berger, for the ANC, told the ConCourt on Monday the party had completed all electronic forms and uploaded supporting documents before the 5pm deadline on 28 August 2026.
At the centre of the dispute is what the Municipal Electoral Act demands for a valid electronic submission.
Berger argued that neither the Act nor its regulations state that a party must press a separate final button once everything has been uploaded.
He told the court that tne ANC was not asking for condonation, extra time, or to file new documents, but only for its compliance to be assessed on a proper interpretation of the law.
In the ANC’s view, once the forms are filled and documents uploaded, submission is complete. Treating a missed click as a total failure to submit is, it says, a technicality that punishes voters more than the party.
The IEC has a different view. It says the “submit as final” button is mandatory and forms part of the submission itself — without it, no submission has occurred.
The commission argues the system gave the ANC adequate warning and the party must take responsibility for failing to finalise in time.
Berger hit back, saying under the IEC’s reading, a party could meet every legal requirement yet still be deemed not to have submitted at all.
He further argued that the IEC’s 1 September letter informing the ANC its lists were rejected was a formal decision capable of being appealed, not a mere administrative update.
If the apex court upholds the disqualification, the ANC will go into the election with no candidates in six municipalities, effectively handing those councils to the opposition before voting begins.