With South Africa holding its seventh democratic elections on 29 May 2024, voters will for the first time receive three ballot papers instead of two ballots.
This follows the amendment of the Electoral Act, which was signed into law in April 2023, which allows independent candidates to contest in the regional (province-to-national) tier of the National Assembly and the Provincial Legislatures.
The Electoral Commission (IEC) will soon start printing the ballot papers, and have appealed to voters to remember that they can only put one mark on each ballot on voting day, as more than one mark will result in a spoiled vote and not counted.
“The Universal Ballot Template (UBT), whose dimensions are benchmarked against the longest ballot paper, is in production and will be available in all voting stations. The UBT can be used by blind and partially sighted people, low-vision users, people who are dyslexic, and people with motor and neuron conditions which do not allow for a steady hand.” – IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo
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.
The National Ballot
This will consist of a list of political parties vying for 200 seats in the National Assembly.
There are currently 52 parties who will be on this ballot and the configuration will be a dual column.
The Regional or Province-to-National Ballots
This will have political parties and independents candidates contesting for the seats reserved for each province in the National Assembly.
Voters will use this ballot to elect a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in the National Assembly.
The number of contestants range from 30 to 44 on regional ballots. The configuration of this ballot is a single column.
Provincial Election Ballots
This ballot is unique to each province and includes parties and independent candidates competing for seats in each respective provincial legislature.
It will allow voters to choose either a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in provincial legislatures.
The number of contestants range from 24 to 45 on the provincial legislature ballots.
Ballot design
The IEC has decided that the design of the ballot papers will be underpinned by the following identifiers:
- Full registered name of the party.
- The photograph of the registered party leader.
- Registered abbreviated name of the party.
- The registered emblem or symbol of the party.
- In respect of independent candidate, the ballot papers will have:
- The name of the independent;
- The photograph bearing the face of the independent and
- The word “INDEPENDENT.”
This helpful video below is a good visualizer of what to expect on Election Day:
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