ANC takes candidates list fight to the Constitutional Court
The governing party has turned to the apex court after the Electoral Court dismissed its bid over councillor candidates who were not registered with the IEC in time.
The ANC has gone to the Constitutional Court in a bid to overturn an Electoral Court ruling that dismissed its candidates list application, SABC News reported on Monday.
The move follows the party’s failure to submit its councillor candidates to the Electoral Commission of South Africa on time. The Electoral Court dismissed the application, and the ANC is now asking the Constitutional Court to set that decision aside.
On the same day, the party’s National Working Committee met in the Eastern Cape to get feedback from structures and communities on the non-registration of candidates with the IEC.
The dispute over who appears on the lists has also become a public argument inside the party. SABC News reported that the clash between Andile Lungisa and Fikile Mbalula over the removal of Lungisa’s name from the PR candidates list is intensifying. Political analyst Sandile Swana joined the broadcaster to unpack the developments.
For a reader following this from outside party politics, the practical question is simple. The IEC runs municipal elections and registers the candidates who appear on the ballot. A candidate who is not registered by the commission’s deadline cannot be voted for, however the party’s internal list was drawn up.
The Electoral Court is a specialist court that hears disputes arising from the electoral process. The Constitutional Court is the highest court in the country, and it is where the ANC now wants the matter decided.
The National Working Committee is the ANC’s day-to-day leadership structure between meetings of the National Executive Committee. Its sitting in the Eastern Cape on Monday was framed by the party as a listening exercise with its own branches and communities.
What is not yet clear from the material available is what the Constitutional Court will do with the application, or when it will be heard. No date for a hearing has been given.
As SABC News reported on 5 October 2026, the ANC has turned to the Constitutional Court in what it described as a last-ditch bid to overturn the Electoral Court’s ruling. That reporting, and the on-air discussion with Swana, is where the facts above come from.
Source: SABC News, ANC turns to ConCourt over candidate lists dispute: Sandile Swana weighs in.
