The Electoral Commission welcomes the orders of the Electoral Court to dismiss five cases against Commission. In a consolidated decision on the five applications, the Court made an identical order, dismissing all of them. The court applications related to non-compliance with the requirements for candidate nomination. The Court said reasons for the orders would follow shortly.
The Court dismissed applications lodged by the following parties:
- Operation Dudula
- Arise South Africa
- Cape Independence Party
- Defenders of the People
- Independent South Africa National Civic Organisation
The decision by the Electoral Court has cleared the path for the Commission to begin with the mammoth task of printing the ballot papers for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections which take place on 29 May 2024.
The Electoral Commission appreciates the hard work of the Electoral Court for bringing these matters to finality. These applications had an immense implications for the production of the ballot papers for the forthcoming elections.
The 27.79 million registered voters will receive three ballot papers to elect candidates to represent them in the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures.
Accordingly, the Commission wishes to restate the following:
- The National Ballot: This ballot will consist of a list of political parties vying for seats for 200 seats in the National Assembly. This ballot will be used to vote for political parties. There are currently 52 parties who will be on this ballot and the configuration will be a dual column.
- The Regional or Province-to-National Ballots: It will have political parties and independents candidates contesting for the seats reserved for each province in the National Assembly. Voters will use this ballot to elect a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in the National Assembly. The number of contestants range from 30 to 44 on regional ballots. The configuration of this ballot is single column.
- The Provincial Ballots. This ballot is unique to each province and includes parties and independent candidates competing for seats in each respective provincial legislature. This ballot will allow voters to choose either a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in provincial legislatures. The number of contestants range from 24 to 45 on the provincial legislatures ballots.
The Commission also re-emphasises its decision the design of the ballot papers will be underpinned by the following identifiers:
- Full registered name of the party
- Registered abbreviated name of the party
- The registered emblem or symbol of the party
- The photograph of the registered party leader
In respect of independent candidate, the ballot papers will have;
- the name of the independent;
- the photograph bearing the face of the independent and
- the word “INDEPENDENT”
Applications for special votes opened on 15 April 2024 and will close on 3 May 2024.
Furthermore, the Commission reiterates that sound electoral administration demands that voters cast ballots at the voting station of registration. However, our framework allows for voters to vote at other voting stations where they are not registered if such voters notify the Commission. Notification for this purpose will close on 17 May 2024.
