The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has rejected a claim by the African National Congress (ANC) that a technical failure prevented it from submitting some of its municipal election candidates before the deadline.

The ANC said problems with the IEC’s online system left some candidate entries incomplete when nominations closed at 17h00 on Friday.

The IEC disputes that explanation. It says the system was open for two weeks, no general technical failure was recorded, and the ANC waited until the final hours to complete its submissions.

The IEC will not allow the ANC or any other party to add candidates after the deadline.

That is the correct decision.

South Africa’s electoral rules cannot change according to the identity of the party that failed to comply with them. Smaller parties and independent candidates were expected to meet the same deadline without the administrative machinery or financial resources available to the ANC.

The ANC faced a similar problem before the 2021 municipal election, when it failed to register candidates in several municipalities.

That history should have made the ANC especially careful this time.

Instead, the party again left essential election administration until the final hours and then blamed the IEC for its own mistake.

The consequences could be severe. Missing ward candidates would weaken the ANC in closely contested municipalities and could affect the proportional allocation of council seats.

This comes as the party enters a municipal election with substantially less support than it held five years ago.

Polling conducted by The Common Sense in conjunction with the Social Research Foundation in July found that the ANC had the support of 34% of voters. In the 2021 local government elections the ANC won 46% of the overall national vote.

The failure also tells voters something about the ANC’s capacity to govern.

A party that cannot submit its own candidate lists on time is asking to manage municipal budgets, electricity systems, water infrastructure, and cities containing millions of people.

The IEC must publish the final lists and identify every incomplete submission. It must then apply the law without fear or favour.

Election deadlines are meaningless if the country’s biggest party can negotiate its way around them after failing to do its work.