The Electoral Court has handed down two rulings in the final days before the local government elections: it dismissed a challenge by two ANC members to the party's Eastern Cape candidate lists, and ruled that a man listed as an EFF ward candidate without his consent is not a candidate.
ANC Eastern Cape lists stand
Two ANC members in the Eastern Cape asked the court to declare the party's provincial and ward candidate lists unlawful, to order a fresh selection process and to stop the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) from confirming the registration of candidates. They argued that the ANC submitted its lists by the 28 August deadline without resolving outstanding internal disputes and appeals.
Judge Leicester Adams dismissed the relief as "incompetent". He said: "The electoral timetable is the central mechanism which regulates and thus gives effect to the rights to vote, stand for public office and to free and fair elections." He added: "Fairness cannot be assessed subjectively by considering only the circumstances of one non-compliant party or candidate." The IEC could not be found to have acted unlawfully or irrationally in refusing an extension, the judgment found, because it has no legal power to extend election deadlines.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula supplied examples of the party's internal dispute processes. One concerned an objection to the Ward 8 nomination process in Matatiele, where the provincial lists committee found "material irregularities" in July and ordered a redo, which the party's electoral committee upheld on appeal in mid-August. Judge Adams said it could not be said "with any conviction that the version of the ANC is so far-fetched and untenable that it can be rejected on the papers out of hand".
EFF ward nominee must be flagged to voters
In the second case, a former EFF local leader who left the party in December 2024 told the court he never consented to being listed as the EFF's candidate for Ward 3 in the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality. He said he learnt of the listing when the IEC published candidate lists on 16 September, and that he has opened a criminal case alleging forgery and fraud. The EFF filed no responding papers.
Judge Modiba Shongwe called the application "unconventional" and "unusual" because the applicant wanted his name removed, not included. He ruled: "The EFF cannot coerce the applicant without his consent to stand for office as ward candidate against his will." He found the IEC acted in good faith because it relies on information from party representatives, saying: "This is rather an issue between the applicant and his party."
The court ordered the IEC to notify voters, for example through prominent notices at voting stations, that the man is not a candidate. Either ballots are reprinted or voting officers strike through his name on each ballot paper. The judge acknowledged that reprinting before 4 November would be difficult.
What we do not yet know
We have not reviewed the full judgments. The IEC has not said which remedy it applied in Ward 3. The EFF has not commented publicly on the ruling. Voters in that ward should check for notices at their voting station.
