Your guide to vote using three ballot papers

With South Africa holding its seventh democratic elections in less than six weeks, voters will, for the first time, receive three ballot papers, instead of two.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has urged voters to carefully review and mark each of these three ballot papers before depositing them into the ballot box. “Our appeal to voters is to remember that they can only put one mark on each ballot. More than one mark will result in a spoiled vote and not be counted.

“The Universal Ballot Template (UBT), whose dimensions are benchmarked against the longest ballot paper, is in production and will be available in all voting stations. The UBT can be used by blind and partially sighted people, low-vision users, dyslexic people and those with motor and neuron conditions,” IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said.

South Africans will go to the polls on 29 May.

Following the amendment of the Electoral Act, 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 three ballots will be for the first time in general elections for national and provinces,” Mamabolo said.

The three ballot papers are: The national ballot: This will consist of a list of political parties vying for 200 seats in the National Assembly. This ballot will be used to vote for political parties. There are currently 52 parties on this ballot and the configuration will be a dual column. The regional or province-to-national 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 a single column. The provincial ballots: This ballot is unique to each province and includes parties and independent candidates competing