Final candidate lists published and certificates issued

The Electoral Commission has published the final list of candidates for the May 7 national and provincial elections and has provided candidates with certificates confirming their candidacy.

The final lists show a total of 8 651 candidates who are standing for election on the regional, national and provincial lists of 45 political parties.

This is slightly fewer than the 9 117 candidates who appeared on the final lists for the 2009 election.

There are 2 089 candidates on national lists, 2 165 candidates on regional lists and 4 397 candidates on provincial lists contesting for 400 National Assembly and 430 provincial legislature seats respectively – giving candidates an overall statistical one in 10 chance of election.

Men continue to make up the bulk of candidates with 59.8 per cent of the total candidates compared to 40.2 per cent women.

This is despite the fact that women registered voters outnumber men 55.9 per cent to 45.1 per cent.

However, gender representation continues to show steady improvement over the years: 1999 (26.76 per cent), 2004 (30.65 per cent) and 2009 (38.5 per cent).

Candidate lists for the Western Cape provincial elections show the greatest gender equity with 43 per cent women – and the Northern Cape provincial lists are the lowest with 37 per cent women.

The parties with the highest percentage of female candidates are:

•  Keep It Straight and Simple (one of one candidate – 100 per cent)

•  African National Party (12 of 14 candidates – 85 per cent)

•  South African Maintenance and Estate Beneficiaries Association (36 of 47 candidates – 76.6 per cent)

With regards to age, candidates over 40 years old comprise 64.86 per cent of the total – with candidates under 30 years old comprising just 11.8 per cent (1 020) of candidates overall.

However, young candidates have increased by 17 per cent since 2009 when just 869 of the 9 117 candidates were under 30 years old.

In 1999 there were 724 candidates under 30 years old out of a total of 7 140 candidates (10.1 per cent).

The breakdown of age of candidates on the national lists is as follows:

•  18 – 19: 5 (0.24 per cent)

•  20 – 29: 224 (10.7 per cent)

•  30 – 39: 464 (22.2 per cent)

•  40 – 49: 551 (26.37 per cent)

•  50 – 59: 550 (26.37 per cent)

•  60 plus: 295 (14.1 per cent)

The honours for fielding both the youngest and oldest candidate go to the same party – the African People’s Convention which has a candidate who will be 18 years, four months and 13 days on election day and a candidate who will be 89 years, eight months and 17 days old.

The final candidate lists are available on www.elections.org.za.

•  Information issued by the IEC