The DA has dragged the ANC to the Electoral Court, filing papers to block the ruling party’s last-ditch bid to field candidates in six municipalities after missing the IEC’s final deadline.
In a hard-hitting intervention that puts ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula on the ropes, the DA says the ANC must not be allowed to bend the rules that every other party obeyed.
DA Federal Council Chairperson Ashor Sarupen confirmed on Wednesday that the party has filed for leave to intervene in the ANC’s urgent application to be allowed to submit late.
“The principle is simple: deadlines are deadlines,” Sarupen said.
“The DA’s intervention seeks to uphold the law, and the IEC’s deadlines which applied to all parties fairly and equally.”
The showdown stems from the 28 August cut-off for the upcoming Local Government Elections.
All parties were required to submit final candidate lists by 17:00. The DA says it met the deadline in all 257 municipalities.
The ANC failed to submit in six municipalities and is now asking the court for condonation, arguing that candidates had been captured on the IEC system.
However, the DA is not buying it.
“Capturing candidates on the IEC system is not the same as submitting them. The system expressly requires parties to ‘submit as final’: a process all parties clearly understood and successfully followed,” Sarupen argued in papers.
“Our courts have repeatedly required ‘rigid adherence’ to election deadlines because equal rules are essential to free and fair elections.”
Sarupen was blunt that the ANC cannot expect preferential treatment because of its size and incumbency.
“The ANC, or any other party, cannot receive special treatment simply because it failed to meet a deadline that applied equally to everyone,” he said.
“The rules are the rules and deadlines are deadlines. Rules and deadlines must apply equally to every political party wishing to contest an election.”
The legal blow comes at a difficult time for Mbalula and Luthuli House, who are under pressure to explain how the ANC failed to meet a deadline that smaller parties managed.
The late submission has sparked internal finger-pointing within the ANC, with questions being asked about organisational capacity in the affected regions.
The ANC had not yet reacted to the DA’s court papers by the time of publication.