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The Electoral Commission of South Africa says now that the list of candidates contesting the national and provincial elections has been finalised, it can now go ahead with the printing of ballot papers for the elections.
"The 27.79 million registered voters will receive three ballot papers to elect candidates to represent them in the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures," said Chief Electoral Officer, Sy Mamabolo on Tuesday.
Addressing a media briefing, Mamabolo said the use of the three ballots follows the amendment of the Electoral Act, which was signed into law in April 2023.
"This amendment revised the electoral system to allow independent candidates to contest in the regional (province-to-national) tier of the National Assembly and the Provincial Legislatures.
"Although the phenomenon of three ballots will be familiar to voters in various local municipalities, it will be new to voters in metropolitan areas and for the first time in general elections for national and provinces.
"There are a total of 400 contested seats in the National Assembly. The proportional representation compensatory 200 seats will be contested by political parties only and there is a dedicated ballot paper for this tier of the National Assembly.
"The remaining regional or province-to-national 200 seats will be contested by independent candidates and political parties. This tier of the National Assembly will also have a dedicated ballot paper," he said.
"This means that National Assembly elections will be based on two ballot papers, a national ballot and the newly introduced regional or province-to-national ballot.
"Therefore, in respect of the elections of the National Assembly, voters may elect a preferred party on the national ballot and elect another preferred party or independent on the regional ballot," the CEO said.
However, in respect of provincial elections, voters will elect a preferred party or independent candidate on a single provincial ballot, Mamabolo added.
The Commission has urged voters to carefully review and mark each of these three ballot papers before depositing them into the ballot box.
(Source: SAnews.gov.za)
