ANC races to beat IEC deadline as Eastern Cape dispute clouds election preparations

The ANC’s candidates lists are being ratified by the NEC ahead of Friday’s IEC deadline, with the party preparing to field more than 10,000 candidates in the local government elections. All that remained yesterday was for secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, pictured, to approve the lists.

The ANC says it will field more than 10,000 candidates in the November 4 local government elections as it pushes to finalise its lists ahead of the Electoral Commission of South Africa's (IEC) Friday deadline, amid ongoing candidate disputes in the Eastern Cape.

The party will field 4,488 ward councillor candidates and 6,000 proportional representation (PR) candidates, with ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu describing the campaign as “wall-to-wall”.

Bhengu was speaking on the sidelines of the ANC’s extended National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Thursday, where the party is finalising and ratifying its candidate lists ahead of their submission to the IEC.

Bhengu said the number of candidates reflected the ANC’s intention to contest elections across the country, with the party seeking to have a presence in every municipality and district.