The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says it has been allocated R2.3 billion for the elections, but warned of the financial implications of amendments to the Electoral Act.
IEC chief financial officer Andile Dawn Mbatha told Parliament on Tuesday amendments to the Act would lead to a lengthy ballot paper, the need to employ more people to count ballot papers and other costs related to the elections.
IEC deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Sheburi also said they have consulted with political parties on the election timetable.
Parties and independent candidates have until March 8 to submit lists of candidates they were nominating for Parliament and provincial legislatures.
The IEC will on March 22 inform parties if there are any candidates on their lists who appear on the lists of other parties. This will give them time to fix this.
On March 26 and 27 the commission will make available the list of all candidates to establish if there were any objections to those standing to be elected to Parliament.
However, Sheburi told members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs that there were certain categories of people who do not qualify to stand as candidates in the elections.
This includes people who have been convicted and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison without an option of a fine.
The IEC said previously that former president Jacob Zuma would not qualify to stand because he was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Constitutional Court for defying a court order. Zuma is now leading uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party and has been on a campaign trail in the last few months.
Sheburi told MPs on Tuesday that people who have been convicted for longer than 12 months could not stand as candidates.
“The last issue relates to people who have been convicted and who have served a custodial sentence of 12 months without an option of a fine. That’s the first requirement. The person must have been sentenced to jail time without an option of a fine and that person must have exhausted all their appeal remedies. For an example, if they have noted an appeal and their appeal was rejected, the provision applies to that person,” said Sheburi.
Mbatha also said out of the R2.3bn that was allocated to the department by National Treasury, they will have to ensure they deliver free and fair elections.
However, the National Treasury cut R30 million from their allocation as part of government’s austerity measures.
She said the impact would come from the implementation of amendments to the Electoral Act.
“You will note, we have got an allocation of R2.3bn. The huge impact in the budget is really coming from amendments to the Electoral Act. The funding pressure is a result of amendments to the Electoral Act,” said Mbatha.
She said the first impact would be on the length of the ballot paper, as there were more parties and independent candidates contesting the elections.
The IEC has said there were more than 352 political parties that will contest the elections this year.
Mbatha added that this will lead to an increase in the number of ballot papers to be printed, the ballot boxes, security seals for ballot boxes and other electoral material.
There was a possibility that they will need to employ more staff to count ballot papers on election day.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics