CENTURION, Tuesday 1 September 2026 — The Electoral Commission of South Africa has rejected the ANC’s assertion that technical problems prevented it from completing some candidate submissions for November’s local government elections and says it will not allow the party to add candidates after the nomination deadline, potentially leaving the ANC unable to contest some wards or municipalities.
The development creates a potentially significant candidate-list problem for the African National Congress little more than two months before the 4 November local government elections.
The ANC said on Monday that it had experienced technical difficulties with the IEC’s Online Candidate Nomination System while submitting its candidates before Friday’s deadline.
The party said a small number of entries were still being finalised in coordination with the commission.
The IEC disputed that account on Tuesday.
The commission said its candidate-nomination system remained available to political parties and independent candidates throughout the nomination period, including on the final day.
It also rejected the suggestion that the ANC was engaged in a process with the commission that could result in outstanding candidates being added after the deadline.
The IEC told Eyewitness News that there were no such engagements and that it would not permit any political party, including the ANC, to add candidates now that nominations had closed.
The commission said political parties had approximately two weeks in which to capture and submit their candidates through the online system.
It questioned why the ANC had waited until close to the deadline to complete parts of its submission.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the party remained confident in the IEC and was working with the commission to resolve the matter, according to SABC News.
The extent of the ANC’s incomplete submissions has not yet been publicly established.
It is consequently not yet clear which municipalities or wards could be affected or how many prospective candidates were not successfully submitted.
That information will determine the electoral significance of the problem.
If an outstanding submission concerns a ward candidate, the ANC could potentially be absent from the ward ballot.
If an entire proportional-representation list or other required municipal submission was not completed, the consequences could be substantially greater.
The IEC’s published guidance for municipal elections states that parties can submit candidates either manually at the relevant commission office or electronically through the Online Candidate Nomination System.
In both cases, nominations must be submitted before the cut-off date and time contained in the election timetable.
The dispute therefore concerns whether the ANC successfully completed the required submission before that deadline rather than simply whether it had begun capturing candidates on the system.
The problem carries particular political significance because candidate nominations determine where a party can appear on municipal ballots.
This means the electoral impact cannot be assessed solely by counting the number of missing candidates.
A small number of omissions could become consequential if they occur in closely contested wards in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Nelson Mandela Bay or other municipalities where coalition arithmetic could ultimately depend on individual seats.
The ANC had spent the days immediately preceding the IEC deadline resolving internal candidate-list matters.
Its National Executive Committee convened a special meeting on 27 August specifically to consider issues arising from the party’s list process.
The ANC said at the time that the meeting formed part of the final stages of its candidate-selection process and was intended to ensure that outstanding matters were handled in accordance with the party’s constitution and electoral requirements.
The current dispute also has a significant historical precedent.
Ahead of the 2021 local government elections, the ANC failed to register candidates in dozens of municipalities before the original deadline.
The IEC subsequently reopened candidate nominations after the Constitutional Court rejected the commission’s application to postpone the elections but permitted it to publish a revised election timetable.
The reopening allowed parties to submit additional candidates.
The ANC had previously argued that technical problems with the IEC system were among the factors contributing to its incomplete 2021 submissions.
The circumstances in 2026 are materially different.
The IEC has not announced a reopening of candidate nominations and its position on Tuesday was that the deadline applies to all contestants.
The commission’s rejection of the ANC’s explanation therefore raises the possibility that any missing candidates could remain excluded when the final candidate lists are certified.
The issue could also move into the electoral courts if the ANC formally challenges the IEC’s position.
No such court application had been announced at the time of publication.
The immediate question is now where the ANC’s incomplete submissions occurred.
Until the affected wards and municipalities are identified, it is impossible to determine whether the problem involves relatively safe ANC territory, municipalities where the party has limited prospects, or competitive councils where even one uncontested ward could alter the balance of power.
That makes publication of the IEC’s certified candidate lists an unusually important milestone in the 2026 campaign.
Those lists should establish both the scale of the ANC’s nomination problem and whether it materially changes the electoral contest in any of South Africa’s major municipalities.
