THE Independent Electoral Commission’s Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said on Monday that the candidate nomination submission will close on Tuesday at 5pm.
According to the IEC, in terms of the election timetable, the cut-off date is Tuesday, 21 September 2021 at 17h00.
“Only registered political parties may contest elections of municipal councils by way of party lists,” said Mamabolo.
“Failure to make payment for election deposits, to submit a party list, candidate names or sufficient supporters (i.e. 50 names of supporters registered in the ward being contested, in respect of the independent candidate) on 21 September 2021 by 17h00 will result in automatic disqualification of the party or independent candidate affected.”
This comes after the Constitutional Court backed the electoral authority’s decision to allow political parties more time to register candidates for municipal elections.
The judgment enables the ruling African National Congress to field candidates in all of the nation’s wards, after it failed to register candidates for at least 35 municipalities by a previous deadline.
Opposition parties including the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party had opposed the registration extension.
Municipal elections will take place on November 1, after the Constitutional Court previously dismissed an application by the Independent Electoral Commission to postpone the vote until next year, citing the impact that coronavirus restrictions would have on the authority’s ability to conduct a free and fair vote.
Briefing the media on voter registration weekend, Mamabolo said over 1.7 million voters registered during the special two-day registration weekend which took place from 18 to 19 September 2021.
He said over 1.7 million is inclusive of new registrations as well as voters correcting their their details.
Mamabolo added that Kwazulu-Natal recorded the most activity during the registration weekend with 358 384, Gauteng 315 282 and Eastern Cape 240 514 applications.
Mamabolo said 156 000 people have already made use of IEC online platform to register to vote in elections.
Last week, Mamabolo said a total of 48 899 registration officials have been trained to undertake the registration procedures at the voting stations.
Earlier on Monday, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma gazetted the date of the municipal elections scheduled for 01 November 2021.
This will be the sixth municipal election to held in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.
“The gazette was done as per Constitution, section 159 read with the Municipal Structures Act, which prescribes that at the end of a five-year term of local government, elections must be held within a period of 90 days,” said Dlamini-Zuma.
“Gazetting of the election date means that the IEC will seal the voters’ roll. The gazetting of the date is taking us a step closer to voting day. We urge all South Africans who will be embarking on campaigning and canvassing for votes to do so responsibly while respecting the COVID-19 regulations and protocols.”
Once the election results are confirmed, councils for all 48 districts, 8 metropolitan and 205 local municipalities in each of the country’s nine provinces will be elected.
“With the gazetting done, we are now all looking towards the voting day. We urge all South Africans to ensure peaceful, credible, free, and fair municipal elections,” she added.
“Our actions have thus far proved true our noble intentions to keep the flame of democracy burning by voting on 01 November 2021. With the voters roll sealed, I hope that South Africans, especially the women, youth, persons with disabilities, and people in rural areas under different traditional authorities had an opportunity to register.”
- Inside Politics
