Election nominees one step closer
The period for parties and independents candidates to submit their nomination details to participate in the upcoming national and provincial elections (NPE) closed on Friday March 8 2024 at 5pm.
Most submissions were made online with only about five submissions being submitted manually at the office of the IEC.
Preliminary indications are that 115 parties have made submissions to contest seats in the National Assembly. Early indications are that all the 14 parties currently represented in the National Assembly have made submissions to contest seats in the National Assembly and at least one region.
One hundred and one parties that are not represented in the National Assembly or provincial legislatures had also made submissions. Similarly, 16 submissions have been received from independent candidates (candidates that are not nominated by a political party).
Work is currently under way to verify the submissions for compliance.
In terms of the law a party submission must contain a list of candidates accompanied by payment of the applicable deposit for it to be compliant.
In respect of not represented parties, the submission must in addition be accompanied by proof that the requisite number of signatures have been uploaded on the nomination portal by capturing the identity numbers of the supporters.
The document containing the signatures must also have been uploaded onto the portal or delivered to the national office of the IEC.
The requirements for independent candidates are that a prescribed nomination form must be submitted by the cut-off time accompanied by the prescribed form confirming that the candidate has submitted the requisite number of signatures by capturing the identity numbers of supporters on the nomination portal and paying the relevant deposit.
There are additional administrative requirements that parties and independent candidates must comply with that are not fatal to the submissions, such as submission of supporting documents. In these instances, the IEC will by March 18 inform the nominating parties and independent candidates to comply by March 20.
On March 22, the IEC will notify parties or candidates who appear on multiple lists. Nominating parties will have until 5pm on March 25 to either replace or confirm the candidate nominated by more than one party.
On March 26-27, the IEC will open the list of candidates for inspection at its network of national, provincial and municipal offices.
A person who intends to raise an objection to the candidature of a nominated candidate must do so by 5pm on March 27.
A person, candidate or party that is aggrieved by the decision of the commission in respect to an objection raised against a candidate may appeal to the Electoral Court by April 2.
The process of candidate nomination will culminate with the compilation of a list of parties and candidates, who will contest the elections, on April 10. This will trigger the ballot generation and printing project.
The IEC is conducting an internal investigation of how the party lists of the ANC and MK were leaked to the public.