{
  "id": 5092637,
  "title": "Councillor candidate submissions: IEC says technical ‘glitches’ could have been on the ANC’s side",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/02/councillor-candidate-submissions-iec-says-technical-glitches-could",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-02T13:18:51.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Citizen",
    "slug": "the-citizen",
    "url": "https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/politics/councillor-candidate-submissions-iec-says-technical-glitches-could-have-been-on-the-ancs-side/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has stated that any technical glitches reported by political parties during the submission of councillor candidate lists could be due to issues on the party's own side. This assertion comes after the African National Congress (ANC) claimed that it failed to submit its complete list of candidates to the IEC due to glitches in their system. ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu explained that the commission's candidate-capture system experienced technical problems on the day of submission, which affected a small number of the party's entries and are currently being finalized with the commission's assistance.\n\nHowever, during a media briefing on Wednesday, IEC's Chief Electoral Officer, Sy Mamabolo, contradicted the ANC's claim by stating that the IEC's system was functioning at full capacity on the day of submission. Mamabolo assured that all political parties were expected to have submitted their full lists by 5pm on that day. He emphasized that the online submissions had been open since June 21, well before the election date was officially announced. Mamabolo highlighted that parties could have utilized various capturing options from June 21, suggesting that technical issues, if any, might have been related to factors such as volume, bandwidth, or even the electric energy source within the internet ecosystem.\n\nThe IEC addressed a separate technical glitch that occurred in 2024 when the screens at the Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Midrand malfunctioned, causing the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party to bring a case before the Electoral Court. The party argued that this incident had deprived them of a significant number of votes. However, the IEC maintained that the results of the 2024 elections were not affected by the scoreboard issues. They dismissed the MK party's court challenge as potentially damaging the IEC's reputation. Electoral Court reserved judgment on the MK party's allegations, underlining the importance of clearing up the controversy.\n\nIn response to the ongoing concerns, Mamabolo assured that the IEC is prepared for the upcoming elections and has made improvements to their operational systems and result collation processes. They have finalized the framework for transferring results from their system into a data warehouse and for projecting the results in various centers, including mobile resources. The results system itself is currently undergoing external testing, including cybersecurity measures, to ensure its technical robustness. Once the external audit is completed, political parties will be invited to review the results system audit before the elections.",
  "summary": "The IEC said it will not accept late submissions of candidate lists.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "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."
}