The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party has demanded a detailed explanation from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) after its request to amend candidate lists ahead of the 4 November local government elections was rejected.
The party is questioning whether it received the same treatment as the ANC.
According to spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu, the MK Party wants the Commission to explain the legal basis for its decision and clarify how its requests were assessed following the Constitutional Court’s ruling in the ANC’s candidate-list dispute.
The party had sought to change ward candidate placements, add omitted candidates and remove candidates who had died.
The IEC rejected the amendments, maintaining that the court judgment did not reopen the nomination process beyond restoring nominations already captured on its online system before the deadline.
The MK Party argued its requests were not “trivial administrative issues”.
“They directly affected the party’s candidates, its organisational preparations and its participation in the electoral process,” Mahlangu said.
He called on the IEC to provide a substantive written response.
“These are reasonable questions that go to the heart of fairness and accountability. The IEC must answer them with facts, documentation and law, not evasions,” he said.
The dispute follows the Constitutional Court’s 15 October ruling ordering the IEC to reinstate 181 ANC candidates whose details the party said had been captured on the Commission’s online system before the nomination deadline but had not been finally submitted.
The IEC subsequently extended relief to 32 other political parties it considered to be in similar circumstances.
The MK Party now wants to know why its own amendments were rejected and whether the ANC received any procedural accommodation beyond the relief granted by the court.
“The current dispute over candidate lists reinforces our distrust in the Commission,” Mahlangu said.
He said transparency and accountability were essential to ensuring all parties are treated fairly, adding that the MK Party would continue to pursue the matter through lawful channels and would not abandon its affected candidates.
“The MK Party will not be intimidated into silence. We will not abandon our candidates. We will not surrender our right to demand accountability from institutions entrusted with administering our democracy,” he said.
IEC national spokesperson and head of communications Kate Bapela said the Commission will respond to the party’s concerns and explain its decision on Thursday.