ANC tells ConCourt IEC’s ‘Submit as Final’ button is not mandatory

The Constitutional Court is South Africa’s highest court for constitutional and major electoral disputes. It is deciding whether the ANC’s candidate nominations should count after the party missed the official deadline in six municipalities. The case matters because election nominations must follow legally prescribed procedures and deadlines.

The ANC says it completed electronic forms, uploaded annexures, and paid the required fees before 5pm on 28 August. It argues that candidate details were already captured by the IEC. The IEC says saving information was not formal submission because the party had not pressed “Submit as Final.”

The court must interpret the legislation and decide what legal status the online process has. Deputy Chief Justice Mlambo questioned whether forms were incomplete without the final button. The ruling will determine whether the ANC’s candidates can be accepted, without reopening the nomination period or granting extra time.

The ANC says it completed every electronic nomination form required for the affected municipalities before 5pm on 28 August. It also uploaded the necessary annexures to the IEC’s online system. The party says the IEC already had the candidate information and that required registration fees had been paid.

The disputed step was pressing “Submit as Final.” The ANC says technical glitches prevented that final confirmation. Its advocate, Daniel Berger, argued that the button only notified the IEC that the submission was final. He said the documents themselves had already been uploaded and submitted through the system.

The IEC gives the step a different meaning. It says information saved on the system does not amount to formal submission. The court therefore must decide whether the ANC’s completed forms and uploaded documents satisfied the legal deadline, even without the final confirmation.

The ANC missed the candidate nomination deadline in six municipalities. The affected municipalities were Port St Johns, Ngquza Hill, Walter Sisulu, Sundays River Valley, Mangaung, and uMshwathi. The issue concerns whether candidates listed in those submissions should still be accepted.

The article identifies 181 candidates whose details were already on the IEC’s system before the deadline. The four Eastern Cape municipalities were Port St Johns, Ngquza Hill, Walter Sisulu, and Sundays River Valley. Mangaung is in the Free State, while uMshwathi is in KwaZulu-Natal.

The number and location of the affected candidates define the dispute’s scale. The ANC is not asking to reopen nominations generally, according to Berger. It wants the IEC to accept these candidates because their information and annexures were uploaded before 5pm, despite the missing final confirmation.

The ANC’s position is that the law requires completed forms and supporting annexures, not an extra button click. Advocate Daniel Berger said the candidate information was captured by the IEC before 5pm, and the party had paid the required fees. He argued that the button appears only in the system and manual, not in an act or regulation.

The IEC treats the online process differently. It says saving information on the portal does not constitute formal submission. In its view, “Submit as Final” was the required confirmation that the party had finished and officially submitted its nominations. The commission also says the portal functioned properly.

The disagreement is therefore about legal meaning, not only computer use. The ANC calls the button a software feature that cannot become law by itself. The IEC says consistent deadlines and procedures are essential to protect electoral integrity and treat parties equally.

The Online Candidate Nomination System, or OCNS, is the IEC’s online platform for handling candidate nominations. Political parties use it to complete electronic forms and upload required annexures. The system is part of the practical process through which parties provide information needed to register candidates.

The legal dispute concerns the platform’s final confirmation feature. The “Submit as Final” button was introduced on the IEC website in 2016. Berger said the button appears in the OCNS screen and manual, but not in any act or regulation. The ANC therefore says uploaded documents were already submitted.

The IEC says the portal worked properly and that saving information was not formal submission. The DA argues that the online system forms part of the framework implementing electoral legislation. The court must decide how the electronic system fits with the prescribed legal method for nominations.

The possible consequence concerns the integrity and timetable of the local government elections. The DA argued that allowing the ANC to rectify its nomination submissions after the deadline would undermine the 4 November elections. The IEC also stresses that deadlines must apply consistently to affected parties.

The ANC disputes that outcome. Berger said the party is not asking for condonation, extra time, special treatment, or permission to submit new information. It wants the IEC to accept candidate details already uploaded before 5pm. The party says system problems do not undermine the commission’s work or integrity.

The court’s decision will determine whether those candidates can be accepted under the existing nomination process. The article does not state that the elections would be postponed or cancelled. It shows instead that the ruling could affect which ANC candidates appear in six municipalities while testing how strictly the deadline applies.

Election nomination deadlines establish a clear point by which parties must identify their candidates and provide required information. Applying one deadline to everyone helps make the process predictable. It also prevents one party from gaining extra time after other parties have completed their submissions.

This case shows why the rule matters. The ANC says its forms, annexures, candidate details, and fees were ready before 5pm. The IEC says the party still had to press “Submit as Final.” If the final step is required, accepting the ANC’s nominations could give it treatment different from parties that completed every system step on time.

The IEC says consistent deadlines protect electoral integrity. The ANC says the button is not required by legislation and that the information was already submitted. The court must balance the prescribed legal process with the way the electronic system records nominations, without granting an extra nomination period.