Facts about the SA electoral process as we head to elections
SA goes to the polls on Wednesday for the country's sixth democratic general election since the end of apartheid.
A voter casts his ballot as part of the general elections at the Ntolwane Primary School in the rural village of Nkandla, on May 7, 2014. Picture: RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP
Some key facts about the election:
– Voters will cast ballots for national legislators and leaders of the country’s nine provinces. Voters do not directly elect individual candidates, they vote for a political party.
– Using a proportional representation system, the number of votes cast for each party will determine the number of seats it gets in parliament. Each party will then distribute the seats to a list of pre-selected members.
– The lawmakers will then elect the country’s president from the party which receives the majority of votes. The first sitting of the new parliament is provisionally scheduled for May 22.
– There are 26.7 million South Africans, almost half of the population, registered to vote.
– Voters will cast ballots at 22,925 polling stations that will open for 14 hours starting at 0500 GMT.
– As many as 29,000 South African expatriates cast their ballots at various foreign diplomatic missions a week ago.
– There are 48 political parties contesting the national elections.
– Provincial assemblies comprise of between 30 and 80 members, from where four members are picked to serve in the upper house of the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces.
– Final results from the elections must be released within seven days. The Independent Electoral Commission has in past elections managed to release results within three days of the vote.
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