The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says there are 115 political parties that submitted lists of their candidates to contest the elections.
It said 16 independent candidates made their submissions to contest for seats in parliament and provincial legislatures.
The commission said on Saturday out of the 115 parties that submitted their lists this includes 14 parties that are already represented in parliament.
The IEC was now verifying if all the parties met all the requirements set out.
After this process the commission will notify parties by March 22 if any of their candidates appear on the lists of other parties.
The IEC will then open the process for parties to object to any of the candidates who have been nominated to stand as MPs or MPLs.
“On May 26 and 27, the commission will open the list of candidates for inspection at its network of national, provincial and municipal offices. The accompanying documents will be available for inspection at the national office of the commission. A person who intends to raise an objection to the candidature of a nominated candidate must do so by 5pm on March 27.
“A person, candidate or party that is aggrieved by the decision of the commission in respect to an objection raised against a candidate may appeal to the Electoral Court by April 2.
“The process of candidate nomination will culminate with the compilation of list of parties and candidates who will contest the elections on April 10. This will trigger the ballot generation and printing project,” said the IEC.
Political parties have been on the campaign over the last few weeks with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) to launch its manifesto at Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban on Sunday.
The IFP had a gala dinner in Durban on Friday.
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) launched its manifesto in Johannesburg on Saturday. Al-Jama-ah was launching its manifesto in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, on the same day.
The United Democratic Movement (UDM). Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) launched their manifestos in Johannesburg last weekend.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics