The Electoral Commission welcomes
the orders of the Electoral Court to dismiss five cases against Commission. In
a consolidated decision on the five applications, the Court made an identical
order, dismissing all of them. The court applications related to non-compliance
with the requirements for candidate nomination. The Electoral Court said
reasons for the orders would follow shortly.
The Court dismissed applications
lodged by the following parties:
- Operation Dudula
- Arise South Africa
- Cape Independence Party
- Defenders of the People
- Independent South Africa National Civic
Organisation.
The decision by the Electoral Court
has cleared the path for the Commission to begin with the mammoth task of
printing the ballot papers for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections which
take place on 29 May 2024.
The Electoral Commission
appreciates the hard work of the Electoral Court for bringing these matters to
finality. These applications had immense implications for the production of the
ballot papers for the forthcoming 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.
Accordingly, the Electoral Commission
wishes to restate the following:
- 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-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 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.
The Commission also re-emphasises
its decision the design of the ballot papers will be underpinned by the
following identifiers:
- Full registered name of the party
- Registered abbreviated name of the party
- The registered emblem or symbol of the party
- The photograph of the registered party leader
In respect of independent
candidate, the ballot papers will have;
- the name of the independent;
- the photograph bearing the face of the
independent and
- the word “INDEPENDENT”.
Applications for special votes
opened on 15 April 2024 and will close on 3 May 2024.
Furthermore, the Commission
reiterates that sound electoral administration demands that voters cast ballots
at the voting station of registration. However, our framework allows for voters
to vote at other voting stations where they are not registered if such voters
notify the Commission. Notification for this purpose will close on 17 May 2024.
ISSUED BY THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION
Ensuring free, fair and credible elections
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