IEC informs ANC that 181 local election candidates were not finally submitted

The IEC informed the ANC that candidate nominations not marked “submit as final” would not be treated as valid submissions. The issue affected 181 ANC candidates across six municipalities, despite candidate details having been uploaded. The ANC attributed the failure to technical problems; the IEC disputed that explanation. The administrative breakdown exposed a serious gap between local candidate selection and national election management, while legal arguments raised questions about digital procedure, statutory deadlines and equal treatment of parties.