Milestones for the 2024 national and provincial elections
On April 12, the IEC issued certificates to the 14,889 candidates who will contest 887 seats in the forthcoming elections. Nominations of candidates closed on March 8 2024 and following verifications and objections, 70 political parties, and 11 independent candidates were published as final contestants in these elections.
Fifteen political parties are contesting all tiers of the elections which means the compensatory seats in the National Assembly, the nine province-to-national elections as well as the nine provincial legislatures. A total of 31 political parties will contest the national elections for the first time.
BALLOT PAPERS
The finalisation of the list of candidates contesting seats in the NPE2024 means that the commission can now go ahead with the printing of ballot papers for the elections.
The 27.79-million registered voters will receive three ballot papers to elect candidates to represent them in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures.
The national ballot: This ballot will consist of a list of political parties vying for seats for 200 seats in the National Assembly. This ballot will be used to vote for political parties.
There are currently 52 parties who will be on this ballot and the configuration will be a dual column.
The regional or province-tonational ballots: It will have political parties and independents candidates contesting for the seats reserved for each province in the National Assembly. Voters will use this ballot to elect a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in the National Assembly.
The number of contestants range from 30 to 44 on regional ballots. The configuration of this ballot is single column.
The provincial ballots. This ballot is unique to each province and includes parties and independent candidates competing for seats in each respective provincial legislature. This ballot will allow voters to choose either a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in provincial legislatures.
The number of contestants range from 24 to 45 on the provincial legislatures ballots.
Voters can only put one mark on each ballot, more than one mark will result in a spoiled vote.
The universal ballot template (UBT) can be used by blind and partially sighted people, lowvision users, people who are dyslexic, and people with motor neuron conditions.
VOTING STATIONS
The IEC has published addresses of the 23 292 voting stations and the route for mobile voting stations. A list of the voting stations can be found on the IEC’s website.
SPECIAL VOTES
Applications for special votes, for home visits and voting station visits, opened on April 15 2024 and will close on May 3 2024. Special voting will be conducted on the two days preceding election day, on May 27 and 28 2024. Access special votes by:
Using our secured online application form found at www.elections.org.za.
SMSing your identity number to 32249 (R1 per SMS) for voting station visit only.
Visiting your local IEC office and submitting an Appendix 1B form for a voting station special vote.
Visiting your local IEC office and submitting an Appendix 1A form for a home visit special vote. Someone else can deliver a form on behalf of a voter.
Special votes will also be administered at SA’s diplomatic missions abroad to service 58,000 registered voters.
The deadline for South Africans temporarily absent from the country to notify the IEC of their intended absence and the mission where they intend to vote is April 22 2024
Special votes at the diplomatic missions will take place 10 days ahead of general voting in the country on May 17 or 18 2024 depending on the weekend configuration of the country.
VOTE WHERE YOU ARE REGISTERED
Voters may only vote at a voting station at which they are registered. Voters who will inevitably be away from their voting districts on election day, May 29 2024, may give a Section 24A notice of their intention to vote at another identified voting station by no later than May 17 2024.