More than 2 000 candidates will not contest the November local elections after failing to submit nominations before the IEC deadline.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) is not going to entertain any attempt by political parties and candidates who missed last Friday’s strict deadline to submit candidate lists once again.
Presenting the outcome of the candidates’ nomination process, IEC chair Mosotho Moepya said 546 of the 732 registered political parties are contesting the November elections.
This represents 75% of the registered parties.
A total of 2 274 candidates were captured, but not finally submitted on its online candidate nomination system by the 5pm deadline last Friday.
This means 480 proportional representation (PR) candidates from political parties and 1 794 potential ward candidates have missed the opportunity to contest the polls.
On rumours that some lists were not submitted because of glitches, IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said no glitches were reported.
“Our report indicates no technical glitch in our capturing. We don’t have a report of no functionality in our system,” Mamabolo said.
Regarding the non-submission of candidate lists by some parties, he said the IEC had no intention of reopening the nomination process.
Whether parties will challenge this remains to be seen, but the IEC has vowed to stand its ground.
Reports from some provinces indicate that nominations were not submitted due to political disputes by communities.
Many challenged the process, accusing their parties of using undemocratic methods to exclude certain individuals.
This year sees a 43% increase in nominations, compared to the 2021 local polls.
With some lists not submitted, this would see a total of 142 072 nominees contesting the 10 526 council seats across the municipalities.
Candidates between the ages of 36 and 55 dominate the nominations this time around, tallying 58% of the candidates running.
Moepya said the IEC would compile the final list of candidates on 16 September.
The commission would review the submissions for compliance with the legislative requirements governing the candidates’ nominations.
It would scrutinise whether candidates had completed the acceptance of the nomination form and political parties and independent candidates had paid the application deposit.
It would also check whether the independents had submitted the details of their registered voters supporting their candidate. Of the 142 072 candidates registered, 40 241 were nominated by political parties to contest the PR seats in different municipalities, while 100 856 candidates will compete for ward seats.
A total of 299 political parties and 127 independent candidates submitted their nominations via the IEC online candidates nomination system, which is designed for the purpose.
A total of 205 parties and 634 independents did it manually at the commission’s offices nationwide.
