IEC hopes elections will be postponed
MORE candidates will be eligible to contest for upcoming local government elections if the Constitutional Court rules in favour of postponing the polls until February next year.
This was revealed by the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) chief executive Sy Mamabolo in Pretoria yesterday, after Monday’s 9pm registration of candidates.
Mamabolo was asked whether the IEC was ready to hold the elections on October 27 if the apex court ruled against the electoral body.
He said the IEC was ready but expressed concern that the October 27 elections would not meet the constitutional standards because of the pandemic.
Expressing hope of a positive Concourt ruling, Mamabolo revealed that 59 272 candidates had potentially been captured to contest for 10 285 seats in municipalities for the October elections.
This figure included those captured through the online candidate nomination system as well as manually in the local office of the IEC.
The IEC said nearly 74% of preliminary candidates were captured through the online system, while 26% came through manual submissions.
The IEC attributed this to the latest technology – an innovative ICT solution which continued to offer operational efficiencies while giving parties and independent candidates greater control over the capturing process.
“The total number of municipal council seats being contested in this year’s election is 10 285. There are 276 unique political parties that submitted candidates, of which two are contesting in all the 257 municipalities in the country. The total number of independents currently captured is 944. In 2016, there were 855 independent candidates,” Mamabolo said.
He said the compliance verification process was already under way to ensure candidates on the system were compliant with the electoral prescripts.
On Friday, the chief electoral officer will notify parties of any non-compliance that may have arisen. Contestants will have until Monday next week to correct the non-compliance.
Parties will know only at the end which candidates appear on the list, and during this time they will be given an opportunity to remove candidates.
Meanwhile, Mamabolo declined to name the two parties contesting all municipal councils. He said a final list would be published on September 7.
The DA has confirmed that it is contesting all municipal councils.
Mamabolo also used yesterday’s briefing to express dismay with ANC members who descended on the electoral offices to protest against irregular nomination of candidates by their party. Parties are urged to set processes to manage internal disputes.