South Africa

Voters can expect a huge ‘main’ ballot paper as 56 political parties field 4 323 candidates for 400 seats in parliament.

Election 2024 is going to be a bigger circus than those of prior years. The list of candidates hoping to get elected to parliament – and to enjoy generous parliamentarian salaries and perks – runs to 58 pages.

No fewer than 14 662 candidates have aspirations to be elected for national or provincial parliament, according to the list of candidates published by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) this week.

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“In all, 14 662 candidates have been nominated to contest the 887 seats available in the National Assembly and the nine legislatures,” according to the IEC.

It says the spread is as follows:

• 4 323 candidates have been nominated to contest the compensatory seats in the National Assembly (contested by parties only);
• 3 596 candidates have been nominated to contest the regional seats in the National Assembly (contested by party candidates and independents); and
• 6 743 candidates have been nominated to contest seats in the provincial legislatures (contested by party candidates and independents).

Political parties and independent candidates had until 5pm on Monday (25 March) to revise their lists of candidates before publication of the lists for public scrutiny.

“The focus in the evolving candidate nomination process [now] shifts to a period within which interested persons may inspect the lists of candidates and raise objections against candidates,” said the IEC.

To that end, it added, it would make the lists with the names of independent and political party candidates available for inspection – at its national office, each of its nine provincial offices and local offices in each municipality – on Tuesday and Wednesday (26 and 27 March) between 9am and 5pm.

The list was also posted on the IEC website.

Everyone (was) welcome to object

Any person can object to the nomination of a candidate.

However, in its ‘Electoral Commission publishes lists of candidates for inspection and objections’ statement on Tuesday (26 March), the IEC states: “Such objections must be lodged with the Commission by 17h00 on [Wednesday] 27 March 2024.”

And that: “The Commission will decide the objections by [Thurday] 28 March 2024.”

It will presumably communicate its decisions immediately.

The Easter weekend notwithstanding, the IEC has allowed time for “the objector, registered party or nominated candidate” to take any of its decisions to the Electoral Court on appeal – by Tuesday (2 April).

It says the final list of candidates contesting the elections will be published by Wednesday 10 April and the ballots will be sent to the printers.

Some had prior knowledge …

The IEC hit out at the leak of the lists of candidates of the ANC and the new uMkhonto weSizwe party ahead of time.

“The Electoral Commission has become aware of candidate lists related to two political parties, the African National Congress (ANC) and uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), that have been circulated or disclosed in a manner not authorised. Furthermore, the Electoral Commission confirms that it has received correspondence from one of the affected parties i.e., the ANC.

“Indications are that the data emanated from internal system-generated reports within the Electoral Commission,” it said.

“To this end, the Commission has directed an enquiry to establish the circumstances and identity of the source of the unauthorised disclosure. To the extent that the disclosed documents also contain personal information of data subjects, the Electoral Commission has reported the incident to the Information Regulator in compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act.”

Old hands and newcomers

Obviously, all 14 political parties that currently hold seats in parliament submitted candidates, as well as those that tried in previous years.

There are also a lot of new parties, such as uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), led by former president Jacob Zuma, and Build One South Africa, led by Mmusi Maimane.

Read: Court rejects bid to remove Zuma party from ballot

The Referendum Party will contest the elections to fight for the right to hold a referendum in the Western Cape, asking residents if they want to split from the rest of SA.

Other newcomers to the parliamentary race include the likes of ActionSA, Hope4SA, Able Leadership SA, the Organic Humanity Movement and African Heart Congress, as well as a host of other parties that include ‘African’ and ‘Congress’ in their names – maybe trying to pick up a few votes by confusion.

Three ballots

The IEC explains that voters will be given three ballot papers if they vote at the voting station where they are registered:

• Ballot 1: National Ballot to vote for a political party to represent you in the National Assembly;
• Ballot 2: Regional Ballot – this is a new ballot to vote for political parties or independent candidates contesting in that region (province) for election to the National Assembly; and
• Ballot 3: Provincial Ballot to vote for political parties or independent candidates contesting elections of the provincial legislature in that province.

“The biggest ballot paper will contain 56 contestants. This is the ballot for the compensatory seats in the National Assembly,” it says.

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“The biggest regional election ballot will be in the Gauteng region with 40 political parties and 2 independent candidates. Similarly, the biggest ballot in respect of provincial legislature elections will be in Gauteng with 42 political parties and 2 independent candidates.”

Valid objections

While it is too late for anyone to lodge an objection, such objections may be raised on the basis that an independent candidate or nominating party has failed to submit the signed prescribed acceptance of nomination, or that there is no signed prescribed undertaking that the candidate is bound by the electoral code of conduct.

The IEC also notes that there are other legal reasons that would disqualify a candidate.

These include anyone who works in the civil service for remuneration, unrehabilitated insolvents, and anyone declared to be of unsound mind by a court.

It also includes anyone who has been convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months’ imprisonment without the option of a fine in SA.

Or outside of the country if the conduct constituting the offence would have been an offence in SA.

However, nobody may be regarded as having been sentenced until an appeal against the conviction or sentence has been determined or until the time for an appeal has expired.

The IEC notes that a disqualification under this paragraph ends five years after a convicted person has completed their sentence.