Johannesburg - The Electoral Commission (IEC) says more candidates will be eligible to contest for upcoming local government elections if the Constitutional Court rules in their favour to postpone the polls until February 2022.
IEC chief executive officer Sy Mamabolo was reacting to media questions on whether the electoral body was ready for the October 27 elections if the apex court rules against it.
In his reply, Mamabolo said the IEC was ready but expressed concern that the October 27 elections will not meet the constitutional standards due to the impact on the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite expressing hope of a positive ConCourt ruling, on Tuesday Mamabolo revealed that a total number of 59 272 candidates have been potentially captured to contest for 10 285 seats in different municipal councils including the Metropolitan Councils in the country for October elections.
This was revealed by the Electoral Commission (IEC) chief executive officer Sy Mamabolo in Pretoria on Tuesday following the registration of candidates deadline at 9pm on Monday.
Mamabolo further said the preliminary figures indicated that the total number of candidates stood at 59 272 and that this figure included those captured through the online candidate nomination system as well manually in the local office of the Commission.
According to the IEC, almost 74 percent of preliminary candidates were captured through the online system, while 26 per cent came through manual submissions.
The Commission attributed this to the latest technology - an innovative ICT solution which continues to offer operational efficiencies while at the same time giving political 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 that the compliance verification process was already under way to ensure that candidates on the system were compliant with the electoral prescripts.
On Friday, the Chief Electoral Officer will notify political parties of any non-compliance that may have arisen. Contestants will have until Monday next week to correct the non-compliance.
Parties will only know at month which candidates appears on the list and during this time they will also be afforded an opportunity to remove candidates.
Meanwhile, two parties are said to be contesting all municipal councils but Mamabolo declined to name them.
He said a final list will be published on September 7.
The DA has, however, confirmed that it is contesting all municipal councils.
Mamabolo also used Tuesday’s briefing to express dismay at ANC members who descended at the electoral offices to protest against irregular nomination of candidates by their party. Parties are urged to set processes to manage internal disputes.
Political Bureau