Commencement of Electoral Laws Amendment Act and Revision of Election Timetable
The Electoral Laws Amendment Act (Act 1 of 2019) has come into effect from 6 March 2019 leading to a slight revision of the election timetable to bring it into line with the amendments.
The proclamation of the commencement of the Electoral Laws Amendment Act, the associated amendments to the Electoral Regulations, Voter Registration Regulations and Regulations Concerning the Submission of Lists of Candidates were all published in the Government Gazette (No. 42289) yesterday.
The Gazette also included a correction to the election timetable in order to incorporate provisions for the Commission to notify political parties of candidates appearing on multiple party lists (by 26 March 2019) and providing affected parties with the opportunity to submitted revised or substituted lists for these candidates (by 28 March 2019) in line with the amendment of section 28 of the Electoral Act.
A further amendment to the election timetable allows special voting through home visits and at voting stations to be conducted over two days (6-7 May 2019 between 09h00 and 17h00).
The corrected timetable also sets voting hours for voting abroad on 27 April 2019 to 07h00 to 19h00 at foreign missions. This was the same as in 2014.
The three sets of regulations published give effect to key enhancements introduced through the Electoral Laws Amendment Act. These include:
Election regulations:
- Providing addition electronic and digital channels (SMS) for applications of special votes
- Streamlining the special vote process for voting abroad
- Removing the requirement to affix a receipt of registration to a voter’s identity document (because this is not possible with smartcard IDs)
- Providing for a different voting procedure for voters whose addresses are not recorded on the voters’ roll
- Making provision for a voter to request a replacement ballot paper at any time before they have deposited a marked ballot into the ballot box.
- Clarifying that a voter may be issued replacement ballot papers not more than twice.
Voter registration regulations:
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Providing for persons to apply for registration and update their address details electronically
Regulations concerning the submission of list of candidates:
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Providing for additional electronic channels for parties to submit their nomination documents and to pay their election deposits
Copies of the Electoral Laws Amendment Act, regulations and election timetable are available on the Electoral Commission website www.election.org.za under About Us/Document Library/Laws and Regulations/Elections.
Media enquiries:
Kate Bapela
Cell: 082 600 6386
