The DA has filed papers in the Electoral Court seeking leave to intervene in the ANC’s bid to have its candidates accepted in six municipalities for the November local government elections.

The DA says the ANC missed the deadline to submit its candidate lists and that allowing it to participate would undermine the rules that applied equally to all political parties.

The party was required to submit its candidate lists by 5 pm on 28 August.

In its court papers, the DA argues that uploading candidate information onto the Electoral Commission’s online system is not the same as formally submitting a list.

It says the system requires parties to select “submit as final” before a candidate list is regarded as submitted.

The DA argues this distinction matters because parties can continue to upload, change, and delete candidate information until the list is formally submitted.

“The process makes it crystal clear that, until a candidate is submitted as final, it will not be regarded as submitted.”

The party further argues that election deadlines need to be strictly enforced to protect the fairness of the electoral process.

The DA says it has a direct and substantial interest in the matter because it will contest the six municipalities where the ANC is seeking to have its candidates accepted.

It argues that allowing the ANC to nominate candidates after the deadline would prejudice parties that complied with the rules.

The DA also rejects the suggestion that technical difficulties with the IEC’s online Candidate Nomination System were responsible for the ANC’s failure to submit its lists on time.

“The ANC is the author of its own misfortune. It left submission to the last minute.”

It adds that even if there were “minor glitches” in the online system, these would not turn the uploading of candidate information into a formal submission.

The DA also points to previous court decisions, arguing that parties that leave candidate submissions until the last minute cannot blame the online system if they subsequently fail to meet the deadline.

It says the ANC successfully submitted lists for 251 municipalities, but failed to do so for the remaining six.

“Its failure to do so for the remaining six is the result of its own ineptitude,” the DA argues.

The ANC has now confirmed that it will oppose the DA’s intervention application.

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula says the DA has no legitimate interest the court needs to protect. The ANC argues that its case is against the IEC and that the Commission is already defending its decision.

“The DA has no quarrel with the Commission and no quarrel with the law. Its quarrel is with the voters of six municipalities who might choose somebody other than the DA.”

The ANC disputes the DA’s characterisation of what happened on the IEC’s system.

It says 45 political parties failed to complete the final electronic step, despite having lodged candidate information through the Commission’s system.

According to the ANC, the DA’s intervention could therefore affect 2 274 candidates from 45 parties, rather than only ANC candidates.

The ANC says there would be no prejudice to the DA if the court rules in its favour, arguing that none of the DA’s candidates would be removed from the ballot.

“A party that complied loses nothing when another party’s timeously lodged candidates are counted.”

The ANC also argues that the IEC’s own election timetable allows for certain defects to be corrected after deadlines.

It points to notices sent to parties regarding missing identity documents and acceptance forms, as well as provisions allowing candidate substitutions.

The party also cites the 2021 local government elections, when the IEC amended the election timetable and reopened candidate nominations in response to circumstances at the time.

The ANC says its application is not asking for a general reopening of candidate nominations.

Instead, it wants candidate information that it says was lodged on the IEC system before the 5 pm deadline to be counted.

The ANC says the matter should ultimately be decided by the Electoral Court and has reiterated that it will abide by the court’s ruling.

The ANC says it lodged 9 128 candidates in total, with 8 947 accepted by the IEC at lodgement. It says this represents candidates in 97% of wards nationally and proportional representation lists covering 90% of proportional seats.

The ANC’s local government election campaign will continue while the legal dispute plays out.