{
  "id": 14648088,
  "title": "ConCourt rules in favour of ANC’s ‘final button’ argument against IEC",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/concourt-rules-in-favour-of-ancs-final-button-argument-against-iec",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-15T08:12:33.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Citizen",
    "slug": "the-citizen",
    "url": "https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/courts/constitutional-court-rules-in-favour-ancs-final-button-argument/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of the ANC, allowing the party to appear on the ballot in six municipalities where its candidate list submission was disputed. The court ruled that the ANC's lists loaded onto the Independent Electoral Commission's (IEC) database should be accepted, despite the party not clicking the final submission button. ANC legal counsel, Advocate Daniel Berger, argued that the final button was not a legally binding requirement for acceptance, as the data was loaded on the system prior to the deadline. The ruling saves the ANC from failing to put forward 181 ward and proportional representation candidates in the Eastern Cape and Free State. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) argued that the Municipal Electoral Act granted it the power to determine the framework for candidate list submissions, stating that the Online Candidate Nomination System (OCNS) had been in place for 10 years and was introduced in 2016.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Citizen",
        "title": "IEC faces high cost of reprinting 66% of 79 million ballots if ConCourt rules in ANC’s favour",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/iec-faces-high-cost-of-reprinting-66-of-79-million-ballots-if",
        "published": "2026-10-15T05:40:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Mail and Guardian",
        "title": "Constitutional Court rules in favour of ANC in IEC candidate nomination dispute",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/constitutional-court-rules-in-favour-of-anc-in-iec-candidate",
        "published": "2026-10-15T08:50:36.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}