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This time around, the ANC says it has met the deadline to register candidates for the upcoming local government elections.
In a communication to the party’s national executive committee (NEC) members on Monday, which City Press has seen, the ANC’s deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte, said the party had managed to register all its candidates.
The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has given political parties and independent candidates wanting to contest the elections up to 5pm on Tuesday to register their candidates.
Last month, the party missed the deadline to submit candidate lists in more than 90 municipalities, causing a short-lived crisis. However, following a decision by the Constitutional Court not to postpone the elections to next year and the IEC’s announcement that it had reopened registration for candidates, the party was given a lifeline.
In the communication to the NEC on Monday, Duarte wrote: “All our candidates are now registered with the IEC, and they have acknowledged receipt. We appeal to you to understand that you will continue to receive complaints and you may wish to ask for changes on the list.”
There has been unhappiness among some members of the party about the candidates lists, with claims that they have had candidates imposed on them and want the lists to be changed.
Just on Monday, in KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC Youth League marched to the party’s provincial offices to demand that young people be represented on the party’s candidate list to the IEC and 25% youth representation across all municipalities.
However, Duarte told the NEC members that “at this stage your perpetual calls to change names on the list is not possible”.
She further said that, if there were people on the lists who were not eligible, such as those with criminal records or registered in another party, that would be dealt with on Thursday and Friday.
After missing the deadline to submit its list, the ANC launched a court application to challenge the decision by the IEC not to extend the candidate registration deadline. However, that application was abruptly withdrawn, with the party pinning its hopes on the outcome of the application by the IEC to the apex court to postpone elections until next year.
READ: Damning report of an ANC in turmoil
In its court papers, the ANC claimed that part of the reason it had missed its deadline had been because of the IEC’s systems, which had kept freezing.
Following the decision by the IEC to reopen the registration of candidates, the DA went to court to have the decision declared invalid and unlawful and set aside. It argued that the decision favoured the ANC, which had missed the first deadline to register candidates.
The court found that the decision by the IEC to reopen the candidate nomination process was not unconstitutional, unlawful nor invalid.
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