IEC publishes timetable for elections

Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Des van Rooyen. File picture: Itumeleng English

Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Des van Rooyen. File picture: Itumeleng English

Published May 25, 2016

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Cape Town - With the local government election date now gazetted and proclaimed, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has released the official timetable for the August 3 polls.

Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Des van Rooyen said they were encouraged that the IEC held an untarnished reputation, having hosted a number of successful national, provincial and local government elections since 1994.

“I am therefore delighted to hand over the baton to the IEC as it prepares to deliver yet another successful election,” he said.

Welcoming the move, the IEC said the proclamation triggered the official election timetable, which was published in a special Government Gazette on Tuesday.

“The timetable spans the next 72 days and lays down the key dates and deadlines for various milestones until election day on August 3,” the IEC said.

Provincial IEC head Courtney Sampson said with the voters roll now officially closed, no new applicants may be admitted to the voters roll, including additional registrations or re-registrations.

The certification of the voters roll will take place on Tuesday.

Sampson said the opening of candidate nominations for political parties and independents opened on Tuesday for the elections.

Political parties have until 5pm next Thursday to submit their list of nominations for ward candidates, proportional representation candidates and district council candidates.

The same deadline applies for independent candidates who are contesting ward elections.

In a first for Africa, the IEC launched an online candidate nomination system through which candidate nominations can be submitted electronically.

The system is designed to speed up and simplify the process of submitting candidate nomination lists by allowing parties to capture their own information and then submit it electronically via the internet by the deadline.

Sampson said those parties and independents that preferred to do manual candidate submissions would still be able to do it.

The total cost for a political party to contest all the municipal councils was R482 000.

The amount includes

* Eight metros x R3 500 = R28 000

* Plus 205 local councils x R2 000 = R410 000

* Plus 44 district councils x R1 000 = R44 000

Deposits are refunded where at least one candidate is elected to the council.

Sampson said the Western Cape IEC team was geared up for the elections.

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Politcal Bureau

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