ANC races to match DA, EFF candidate lists
THE ANC is racing against time to select an equal number of election candidates to those of the DA and EFF following its failure on Monday to provide the Electoral Commission (IEC) with full details of all its candidates on time.
Now, an aggrieved ANC is set to file an urgent application in the Electoral Court today to force the IEC to allow more than 10 000 of its members to contest the upcoming local government elections on October 27.
In a surprise turn of events, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte admitted the party failed to register all its candidates on time, in compliance with the IEC registration deadline of 9pm on Monday this week.
The ANC's application in the Electoral Court today confirms the IEC's announcement that only two political parties in the country had registered their candidates to contest all 10 285 municipal council seats in the 257 municipalities in the country, including the metros.
IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo did not confirm the names of the parties but the DA and EFF have since confirmed they have candidates in all wards.
Duarte said during a media briefing yesterday the ANC would file papers to the Electoral Court, asking it to force the IEC to accept those candidates who were excluded after the party “experienced glitches” with the electoral body's online system.
According to Duarte, if the intended application before the Electoral Court fails, about 29 or 30 of the 267 municipalities will not have an ANC candidate.
“Some of our candidates were rejected by the online system.
“Some of them were found not to have properly registered in the ward in which they stood as candidates for the upcoming local government elections.
“Most of them are young people who could have been affected by the fact that there was no voter registration to register them as first-time voters,” Duarte said.
She added that the IEC system kept on freezing, which resulted in some of the ANC's candidates not being able to meet the IEC deadline.
Duarte, however, admitted that the delay was also due to the party's regional secretaries, who struggled to obtain the correct details of candidates ahead of the registration deadline.
She said the ANC's electoral body, under former president Kgalema Motlanthe, was due to sit today to resolve some of the disputes brought to its attention.
She was adamant that the list did not contain any person facing criminal charges.
“All those who had criminal convictions were removed from the list, including those facing criminal charges,” she said