Johnathan Paoli
THE Electoral Commission (IEC) has announced its intention to make the lists with the names of independent and political party candidates available for inspection at its national office, at all its nine provincial and at local municipal offices over the next two days.
The commission released a statement on Tuesday and said that parties intending to contest the elections had until 17:00 on Monday to revise their lists and inform the commission if they had nominated candidates who also appeared on the list of another party or who were nominated as independent candidates.
The statement confirmed that there were 42 candidates appearing on more than one party list implicating 39 parties and that one candidate was nominated as an independent candidate and also appeared on a list of a party.
“The focus in the evolving candidate nomination process shifts to a period within which interested persons may inspect the lists of candidates and raise objections against candidates. Copies of the documents accompanying the lists are available for inspection at the commission’s national office between 09:00 and 17:00,” said the commission.
In all, 14 662 candidates have been nominated to contest the 887 seats available in the National Assembly and the nine legislatures.
The spread of the candidates include 4 323 candidates who have been nominated to contest the compensatory seats in the National Assembly (contested by parties only), 3 596 candidates who have been nominated to contest the regional seats in the National Assembly (contested by party candidates and independents) and 6 743 candidates who have been nominated to contested seats in the provincial legislatures (contested by party candidates and independents).
The commission said that the biggest ballot paper will contain 56 contestants for the compensatory seats in the National Assembly and that the biggest regional election ballot will be in the Gauteng region with 40 political parties and 2 independent candidates.
Similarly, it confirmed that the biggest ballot in respect of provincial legislature elections will be in Gauteng with 42 political parties and 2 independent candidates.
Seven independent candidates are expected to contest the regional elections and six will contest the provincial legislature elections and said the region with the most number of independent candidates is the Limpopo region with three candidates.
The commission said that any person may object to the nomination of a candidate, but required the objections to be lodged with the commission by 17:00 on 27 March.
“An objection 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 commission said.
An objection may be on the basis that a candidate is not qualified to stand in the election, taking into account sections 47 and 106 of the Constitution are instructive.
The sections provide that every citizen who is qualified to vote for the National Assembly is eligible to be a member of the Assembly, except: anyone who is appointed by, or is in the service of the state and receives remuneration for that appointment or service, permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces or members of a provincial legislature or a Municipal Council, unrehabilitated insolvents, anyone declared to be of unsound mind by a court of the Republic or, anyone who, after this section took effect, is convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment without the option of a fine.
In addition, the commission said that a disqualification under this paragraph ends five years after the sentence has been completed.
The commission said that it would decide the objections by 28 March, with any objector, registered party or nominated candidate being required to lodge possible appeals against the decision of the Commission to the Electoral Court by 2 April.
The final list of candidates contesting the elections will be published by the Commission on 10 April this year.
The commission said voters are reminded that they may only vote at a voting station in which they are registered, and should give notice if they were unable to attend their voting districts during elections.
INSIDE POLITICS
