The ANC has launched an urgent application in the Electoral Court following the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC’s) rejection of 181 candidate nominations of the party across six municipalities.

Announcing the legal challenge, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula emphasised that despite the “administrative setback”, the party is fielding over 9 000 candidates across all nine provinces.

Mbalula revealed that the ANC successfully lodged 9 128 candidates for the upcoming November 4 election. Of these, 4 366 are registered on the ward ballots and 4 581 on the proportional representation (PR) ballots.

This represents 97% of all available ward seats and 90% of all PR seats across the country.

"No other party in this country will come to you with that figure," Mbalula said, framing the scale of the party's registration drive against the localised omissions.

"I give it to you first because it is the frame in which everything else must be read."

The dispute centres on 181 candidates, comprising 130 on the PR ballot and 51 on the ward ballot, whose electronic submissions did not complete the final step on the IEC’s system before the August 28 17:00 deadline.

The affected areas are limited to six of the country's 257 councils: Ngquza Hill, Port St Johns, Walter Sisulu, and Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape; uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal; and the Mangaung metropolitan municipality in the Free State.

Mbalula has clarified reports suggesting the party had completely disappeared from those ballots.

In Mangaung, uMshwathi, Walter Sisulu, and Sundays River Valley, the ANC’s full slate of ward candidates remains fully registered.

Only Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns face disruptions to both the ward and PR ballots, he explained.

Defending the party's submission process, Mbalula explained that candidate loading began on July 13, following an extensive internal selection process overseen by Kgalema Motlanthe’s electoral committee.

However, in the final hour of August 28, operators handling the affected lists were abruptly logged out of the IEC’s electronic platform and redirected to the landing page, cutting off final confirmations.

The ANC claims the data was already captured within the system prior to the 17:00 deadline, pointing out that the IEC printed reports for those councils on September 3 using that specific data.

“Let me repeat there is not a single name the ANC wishes to enter into the Commission’s system anew. All the names are inside the system as we speak. Whether that is submission in law is the question the Court will decide,” Mbalula stated.

The IEC officially refused the ANC's request to process the stored information on September 4, prompting the party to approach the Electoral Court in Bloemfontein under Section 20 of the Electoral Commission Act.

The application seeks to overturn the IEC’s decision and direct the commission to recognise the submissions as valid.

Mbalula noted that its legal battle carries implications for the broader political landscape.

According to IEC records, 2 274 candidates from 45 different political parties experienced identical electronic submission failures.

Mbalula highlighted that out of 299 parties using the electronic route, 45 could not complete the process, whereas none of the 224 parties lodging by hand reported similar difficulties.

Despite the litigation, Mbalula says the party maintains confidence in the electoral body.

"The Electoral Commission is an exemplary institution by any global standard," he said. "There is no question about its integrity, or about its standing as a guardian of our democracy."