No grace period for parties, candidates who missed nomination deadline: IEC

This comes after the African National Congress (ANC ) failed to submit candidate lists for several municipalities before the cut-off time.

The ANC blamed technical glitches, but the IEC rejected the claim, saying its online system was operational.

More than 142 000 candidates have been nominated for the upcoming local government elections in November.

IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo briefed the media in Pretoria on Wednesday.

"The ANC requested confirmation that their parties, their candidates are not submitted in certain municipalities because they wanted to be sure that indeed that was the case and the Commission so confirmed," Mamabolo said.

"The Commission has never entertained any possibility to open the system for any one party; the Commission does not have an intention even at this point to open the system," he added.

Meanwhile, the Commission said more than 142 000 candidates have been nominated to contest the upcoming local government elections in November.

The IEC will now scrutinise the nominations to ensure they comply with the legislative requirements.

This includes checking that candidates have completed their acceptance-of-nomination forms, and that political parties and independent candidates have paid the required deposits.

The IEC said 345 political parties are registered at national level, and 227 of those have nominated candidates.

The profile of nominated candidates is dominated by individuals aged between 36 and 55 years, which represents 58%.

The highest concentration, found in the 41-45 year age group, accounts for 16% of nominated candidates.

Gender analysis shows that men account for nearly two-thirds of all nominations. Women’s representation is about 38% overall.

The final list of candidates is expected to be published on the 16th of September.