The DA has launched an urgent application in the Electoral Court against ActionSA, the EFF, the MKP, and the GOOD party, accusing them of undermining electoral laws ahead of the upcoming local government elections.

The legal challenge centres on allegations that these parties are deliberately concealing their proportional representation (PR) candidates from the public by submitting lists containing just a single name.

DA Federal Council chairperson Ashor Sarupen stated that the opposition parties are misinterpreting a legal provision meant for unexpected electoral surges.

The law allows the Independent Electoral Commission to ask a party to submit extra names after an election, but only if they win more seats than candidates initially registered on their PR list.

"They are bending the rules, and attempting to mislead voters," Sarupen said.

He argued that the provision was never intended to be used as a pre-planned strategy to hide councillor candidates until after the ballots are counted.

"The principle at stake is so fundamental that it cannot go unchallenged: parties are required to present voters with the names of their candidates before voters go into a voting booth to choose their political parties, not after the votes have been counted," Sarupen noted, adding that past court rulings have deemed voters' right to information ahead of an election as sacrosanct.

The DA highlighted that the EFF was contesting almost every ward with thousands of individual ward candidates, yet only submitted a single PR candidate per municipality.

The party pointed out that ActionSA nominated over 2 000 ward candidates while using one-person PR lists across nearly every contested municipality—including Johannesburg, where the party currently holds dozens of PR seats.

The MKP and the GOOD party are following the same pattern, the DA claims, even in municipalities where the GOOD party already holds multiple PR seats.

The DA pointed out that ActionSA publicly admitted to the strategy. The party reportedly stated it submitted one name so it could supplement the list later, using the remaining seats to reward party members who work hard during the campaign.

The DA criticised this approach, accusing ActionSA of putting party interests ahead of residents.

The DA's application asks the Electoral Court to determine the legality and constitutionality of using list "topping-up" as a deliberate electoral strategy to avoid identifying candidates early.

Sarupen compared the situation to previous elections where the ANC was disqualified from contesting certain municipalities after failing to submit its candidate lists on time.

He argued that if the ANC had used this "wilful deception" by submitting just one name, they would have safely remained on the ballot.

"Voters must be presented the candidates they are voting for," Sarupen said. "Elections cannot become games of sleight-of-hand. The ballot box must determine which candidates are elected."