South Africa’s Constitutional Court ordered the restoration of 181 African National Congress candidates to the municipal-election process on October 15, overturning their exclusion from six municipalities.
The majority order requires the Electoral Commission to take the necessary steps to include the affected nominations in ballot papers and related processes for the November 4 vote. Detailed reasons are to follow, so the outcome should not yet be treated as a fully explained precedent on electronic filing.
The dispute turned on a final confirmation step in the commission’s online nomination system. The ANC had uploaded candidate information and supporting documents, but had not completed the “submit as final” step for the affected municipalities before the deadline.
In its written submissions, the party argued that the governing legislation and regulations required completion of electronic forms and uploading of annexures, not an additional software confirmation. It said it sought recognition of material already supplied, rather than permission to add or alter nominations after time expired.
The commission defended final submission as part of a binding framework. Its submissions stressed that election deadlines protect certainty and equal treatment, and argued that an uploaded but unfinalised list did not amount to a legally completed nomination.
The court’s order reverses the ANC’s defeat in the Electoral Court. It concerns the party’s affected lists and ward nominations in six municipalities, including Mangaung. It does not, by itself, restore every other party’s incomplete nomination.
Ballot production was already under way. The commission said in its October 14 readiness statement that more than 66 per cent of the planned 79 million ballots had been printed, making implementation of the new order a practical as well as legal task.
The official court case file contains the parties’ submissions. The full reasons for the October 15 order were not available in the material reviewed.
