Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

03 September 2026

2-minute read

At a briefing in Centurion on Tuesday, the Independent Electoral Commission announced that the candidate nomination system for all parties and independent candidates will not be considered after the cut-off date.

This comes after the ANC’s statement that they had made several submissions before the deadline but claim that names were kicked off the system.

Deputy-chief Electoral Officer for Outreach Dr Victor Shale mentioned that “elections are a process, not an event,” explaining that elections take 5 years to prepare and are given a 2-year lead time to ensure credibility. “Elections are the biggest logistical operation in the country,” a meticulous operation that does not allow for any deviation, he said. The logistics of the process go from candidate nominations up to printing of the ballot papers.

We are now at the election phase of the cycle, he stated further, where, effectively, the date was set on August 7^th. From this day onwards, there are “legally stipulated deadlines” until South Africans go to the polls, and the Electoral Commission has no authority to change the process in any way.

So, while the ANC claims that there is a glitch in the system, the IEC’s official position is that all political parties and candidates who submitted their nominations on the closing date of 28 August, whether online or in person, did so successfully and there were no reported glitches on their side.

The approved list constitutes of around 142 000 candidates overall competing for no more than 10 500 available seats across the board. It is possible that when submissions are considered, there may be issues around correct documentation – in that case candidates will be contacted to complete the verification of documents by the 7^th of September. By the 16^th of the month, a full list of nominees who have met the requirements will be published and these names will then feature on the ballot papers come elections in November.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Dr Victor Shale here.