Over 60 000 candidates stand for election
This is approximately 65 percent more parties and approximately 12 percent more candidates than the previous municipal elections held in 2011.
A record 200 parties and 61 014 candidates will contest the August 3 Municipal Elections following the certification of parties and candidates contesting the elections on June 27.
This is approximately 65 percent more parties and approximately 12 percent more candidates than the previous municipal elections held in 2011.
As part of the verification of compliance process, 8 350 candidates were disqualified.
Of the candidates disqualified, the vast majority were disqualified for non-submission of documentation, non-payment of deposit and not being registered voters in the municipality in which they wanted to contest.
However, two issues could still see the final numbers of parties and candidates subject to minor amendments.
The first relates to 73 payments which the Electoral Commission received on time but could not link to a party or candidate as the payment did not contain the correct deposit reference number.
An unlinked deposit is not of itself anomalous to compliance and where the relevant parties and/or candidates can show a link to a payment received on time they will be allowed to contest.
Parties and candidates who were disqualified have been notified and it is hoped those whose electronic payments form part of the 73 will contact the Electoral Commission urgently.
A second issue relates to any court challenges of disqualification by parties or candidates.
The Electoral Commission is aware of at least one party which has approached the Electoral Court to overturn its disqualification for non-payment of deposit.
The court process is outside of the control of the Electoral Commission. However, resolution of final candidate and party lists is of the utmost urgency as the Electoral Commission must commence the printing of ballot papers by July 4 in order to ensure they are ready for the August 3 election.
There are a total of 4 649 unique ballot papers for the 2016 Municipal Elections:
- 4 392 ward ballot papers
- 205 local council Proportional Representation (PR) ballot papers
- Eight metro council PR ballot papers
- 44 district council ballot papers
Voters in metros will complete two ballot papers and voters in all other municipalities will complete three ballot papers.
The Electoral Commission plans to print approximately 80 million copies of ballot papers to ensure sufficient ballots for all voters.
