South Africa’s electoral commission faces a tight deadline to print 6.6 million additional ballot papers following a last-minute Constitutional Court ruling. The order forces the inclusion of candidates who missed a technical deadline.

The Electoral Commission (IEC) must complete printing by 30 October – just days before special voting begins on 2 and 3 November, and election day on 4 November. This comes after the court ordered the commission to reinstate 181 African National Congress (ANC) candidates across six municipalities.

Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said the commission activated its printing presses over the weekend of 19 October. He remains confident the commission can meet the deadline despite the logistical challenge.

How the dispute arose

The dispute began when the ANC uploaded candidate information and paid required deposits for six municipalities, but failed to click the final “submit as final” button on the IEC’s online system before the 28 August deadline.

On 15 October, the court ruled that the 181 candidates—comprising 51 ward candidates and 130 proportional-representation candidates—must appear on ballot papers in the following areas:

• Eastern Cape: Port St Johns, Ingquza Hill, Walter Sisulu, and Sundays River Valley
• KwaZulu-Natal: uMshwathi
• Free State: Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality

Extension for other parties

The IEC extended the same administrative relief to 32 other political parties in a similar position, affecting 107 municipalities in total. However, 13 other parties did not qualify because they failed to meet mandatory requirements, such as paying election deposits.

Mamabolo noted in a radio interview that the commission had already printed 27 million of the 33 million ballots required for affected municipalities before the ruling, leaving 6.6 million still to produce.

Fortunately, the IEC had deliberately held back printing for the six ANC-affected municipalities while waiting for the court’s decision, avoiding wasted costs.

Meeting the election timeline

Before the court ruling, the commission reported that more than 66% of the overall 79 million ballots for the election had been printed, with production originally scheduled to finish on 18 October.

Mamabolo described the ruling as “constitutionally clarifying but logistically disruptive” during his radio interview. Despite ballot booths and boxes already sitting in municipal storage, the IEC insists the compressed timeline will not delay voting.

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