Deadline looms for parties to submit candidate lists for local elections

Today is the deadline for the political parties and independent candidates to submit their lists or nominations in order contest the upcoming local government elections.

While only registered political parties may submit candidate lists, they have until 9pm to submit their nominations.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had previously indicated that the cut-off off time was 5pm, with over 20 parties having submitted their lists.

READ MORE: Local govt elections: Covid-19 not a good enough reason for postponement

“To date, 25 political parties and 50 independent candidates have either captured their details or have submitted candidate lists and details,” the commission said in a statement last Tuesday.

The IEC said it will notify parties of any candidates appearing on multiple party lists by 31 August while the affected parties will have until 2 September to submit revised lists.

The final list of candidates will be published on 7 September.

Parties to contest elections

The local government elections will see more than 200 political parties and at least 65,000 independent candidates participate.

Political parties and and independent candidates contesting across all elections – which include 44 district councils, 205 local councils, eight metros and 4,468 wards – will have to pay R482,000 in deposits.

In comparison to the 2019 national and provincial elections, parties that contested all 10 elections paid R605,000 each.

Here are the amounts to be deposited to contest elections:

• R3,500 for metros.
• R2,000 for district councils.
• R1,000 for local councils.
• R1,000 for wards.

Elections budget

In May this year, the IEC revealed that R1.9 billion had been budgeted to cover the cost of the 2021 local government elections after Mamabolo conceded South Africa’s fiscal climate and battered economy had led to drastic cuts in commission operations amounting to R663 million.

The 2021-2022 budget will see 27% spent on electoral operations, staff expansion and events.

Some 10% of the budget will be spent on registration, voting materials, warehousing and distribution costs, while 4% has been allocated to communication and media.

Postponement

The elections are scheduled to take place on 27 October, however, the IEC is seeking to postpone the elections to next year.

The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) on Friday heard the commission’s urgent application seeking the postponement of the local polls to February next year.

This is after former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke’s inquiry into the feasibility of holding elections found that the elections would likely not be free and fair due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions on gatherings.

The judgement in the matter has since been reserved after the ConCourt heard arguments from, among others, the African National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

ConCourt asks why IEC didn’t approach Parliament to postpone elections

Additional information by Brian Sokutu