EAST LONDON, Wednesday 2 September 2026 — The ANC faces the prospect of being unable to contest proportional-representation seats in four Eastern Cape municipalities — and potentially both ward and PR contests in two of them — after failing to complete candidate submissions before the Electoral Commission’s deadline for the 4 November local government elections.
The development materially clarifies the candidate-registration problem reported earlier this week, when the African National Congress acknowledged that a “small number” of entries had not been completed but did not identify the affected municipalities.
Reporting from the Eastern Cape now identifies Ingquza Hill, Port St Johns, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley as the municipalities affected.
The consequences differ between them.
The ANC is reported to have failed to complete both its ward and proportional-representation candidate lists in Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns, while its PR lists in Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley were not successfully submitted before the deadline.
If confirmed in the final candidate records, the consequences would be substantially more serious than the loss of a handful of individual ward candidates.
A political party must submit the required proportional-representation list within the election timetable to contest the PR component of a municipal election.
Eyewitness News reported on Wednesday morning that the ANC could therefore be unable to compete for PR council seats in some Eastern Cape municipalities.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa has already ruled out allowing parties to add candidates after nominations closed at 17:00 on Friday, 28 August.
The commission rejected the ANC’s assertion that technical difficulties with its Online Candidate Nomination System contributed to the incomplete submissions.
It said the system remained available throughout the nomination period, including on the final day.
The ANC has maintained that technical problems affected several contestants and initially said outstanding entries were being finalised with the IEC.
The commission subsequently said there were no arrangements allowing the ANC or any other party an additional opportunity to capture candidates.
That disagreement remains unresolved publicly.
The ANC’s Eastern Cape leadership initially denied reports that municipalities in the province had been affected.
Provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane told the Daily Dispatch over the weekend that, as far as the provincial organisation was aware, all its lists had been submitted.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula similarly told the Sunday Times on Saturday that the party had submitted candidates for all 257 municipalities.
“No, it’s not true. We submitted all our candidates and paid in advance,” Mbalula said when questioned about claims involving the Eastern Cape.
The party subsequently changed its position.
National spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu acknowledged on Monday that the “overwhelming majority” of ANC candidates had been successfully lodged but said a small number of entries remained outstanding because of what the party described as technical problems.
The IEC disputed that explanation on Tuesday.
The Economic Freedom Fighters in the Eastern Cape has now formally asked the commission to confirm whether the ANC successfully submitted its nominations in the four affected municipalities.
EFF provincial secretary Simthembile Madikizela wrote to the IEC seeking confirmation of the status of ANC ward nominations and PR lists in Ingquza Hill, Port St Johns, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley.
IEC Eastern Cape spokesperson Sanda Nodada confirmed receipt of the request and said the commission would respond.
The EFF’s claims about the specific ANC submissions remain allegations pending the commission’s formal confirmation.
The IEC is expected to provide further information on the national outcome of the candidate-nomination process at a media briefing on Wednesday.
The consequences could be particularly significant in Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns, where the ANC has historically been a dominant political force.
Losing access to both ward and PR contests would be considerably more consequential than missing individual candidates because it could remove the party from substantial portions of the municipal ballot.
Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley present a different problem.
If the ANC’s ward candidates were successfully registered but its PR lists were not, the party could still contest individual wards but would lose one of the two routes through which seats are allocated in local councils.
That could materially reduce its eventual council representation and alter coalition arithmetic even where it wins wards.
The Eastern Cape problems also reverse the position presented by the ANC immediately after nominations closed.
Mzansi Political Safari reported on 30 August that Mbalula said the party had met the IEC deadline across all 257 municipalities, despite extensive candidate-selection disputes in the Eastern Cape.
The new information means that assurance can no longer be treated as an accurate description of the party’s completed submissions.
The nomination problem comes after a particularly difficult candidate-selection process for the ANC in the province.
About 180 internal disputes were lodged during the process, with approximately 50 still unresolved during the final week before the IEC deadline.
Disputes were concentrated in Chris Hani, Alfred Nzo, OR Tambo, Amathole and the Dr WB Rubusana region covering Buffalo City.
There have also been allegations that names approved through ANC structures were changed during the final candidate-registration process.
Those allegations have not been established and should be distinguished from the confirmed fact that some ANC submissions were incomplete.
The immediate electoral question is now whether the IEC’s scrutiny confirms the reported extent of the omissions.
Unlike the position after the 2021 nomination deadline, the commission has explicitly said it will not provide another ordinary opportunity for contestants to add candidates.
That leaves the ANC with increasingly limited options if the four Eastern Cape submissions were not legally completed by Friday’s deadline.
The IEC’s Wednesday briefing is consequently likely to determine whether the Eastern Cape problem remains an administrative dispute or becomes one of the most consequential candidate-registration failures of the 2026 municipal election.
