The ANC on Wednesday postponed its press briefing where party treasurer-general Paul Mashatile was supposed to give an outline of the nomination processes for the 55th national conference. 

In a statement, party spokesperson Pule Mabe said it was because the organisation had not yet finalised the membership audit.

@MYANC informs members of the media that an engagement which was scheduled to take place today, Wednesday 07 September 2022, with the Treasurer General Paul Mashatile on nomination processes towards the 55th National Elective Conference has been postponed. pic.twitter.com/fMFJf5ifS6

— African National Congress (@MYANC) September 7, 2022

“The NEC is expected to convene in a special session this coming Sunday, the 11th of September 2022 to adopt the final membership audit to finally pave a way for the start of the nomination processes in accordance with the newly approved ANC electoral Guidelines.

“A more comprehensive briefing to provide an update on the nomination processes and other relevant details on the upcoming 55th National Conference will be convened soon after the Special NEC,” according to Mabe. 

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Branch nomination process

The nomination process will allow for branches of the party to engage on which leaders they will be endorsing. The branches play an important role in the conference as they make up 90% of delegates at the party’s national conference which is taking place in December. 

The Electoral Commission rules stipulate that nominations for the top six and the 80 NEC members will be completed at branch general meetings under the supervision of independent electoral officers. This is to ensure fairness in these gatherings, which sometimes end up being chaotic because of opposing views by members.

Electoral officers will chair the nominations and oversee the vote counting. They will consist of well-trained former MPs and MPLs, former councillors, as well as provincial legal and monitoring team members who have no interest in contesting the elections. 

They will undergo training by the Electoral Committee and its agency or staff and be deployed to different regions from the ones where they reside. They will exclude anyone who is or wants to be nominated to be a part of the NEC, Provincial Executive Committee or Regional Executive Committee.

While the nominations must be captured by the two senior branch executive officials present, the electoral officer is given the responsibility of photographing each nomination form with their phone and immediately sending it to the Electoral Commission in case there is a dispute about the validity of a data entry on the ANC system. The branch secretary and chair must then enter the data on the ANC system provided for this purpose. DM