JOHANNESBURG - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has filed court papers opposing the ANC's bid to allow the late nominations of some candidates for the upcoming municipal elections.
The ANC approached the Electoral Court to contest the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) exclusion of candidates who missed the 28 August cut off.
This was after they blamed Commission's online system for its failure to submit on time.
But the DA said no political party should receive special treatment, with everyone else adhering to the IEC's deadlines.
“The ANC, or any other party, cannot receive special treatment simply because it failed to meet a deadline that applied equally to everyone.
The rules are the rules and deadlines are deadlines. Rules and deadlines must apply equally to every political party wishing to contest an election,” the DA said.
According to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party’s candidate names had been submitted “timeously and validly”.
A total of 181 ANC candidates in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State have been affected by the technical issue.