It’s D-day for political parties to register for election

D-day has arrived for political parties wishing to contest the May 8 general election.

Parties have until 5pm today to comply with the registration requirements, otherwise they are out of running in the polls, the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) announced yesterday.

After today’s deadline, the commission would make a public announcement about the final list of political parties that would participate in the general election. This would mean any party not on the list will be excluded.

And as a result of the above, there is a likely last-minute rush by parties to submit their candidates’ lists and electoral fees as a whopping 12 of a total 34 parties that indicated that they would, are yet to come forward with their lists and payments.

There is fear that some were facing the possibility of being locked out should they fail to beat the strict closing deadline of 5pm.

In the August 2016 local government elections, the National Freedom Party (NFP) was disqualified from contesting the poll because the party failed to pay its electoral registration fee on time due to an administrative blunder by its officials.

Former KwaZulu-Natal chief electoral officer Mawethu Mosery, who is now IEC deputy chief executive for outreach, said to date they had not received the required payment of about R92 000 from the NFP for its candidates to contest the August 3 municipal polls in the province. The deadline for payment was June 2, 2016.

IEC national spokesperson Kate Bapela yesterday said shortly after 5pm today, South Africans would know which political parties would be contesting the national and provincial polls.

“Once tomorrow’s [today] deadline has passed, the Electoral Commission of SA will have until March 19 to advise parties of any noncompliance in respect of candidate lists which must be rectified by March 25,” said Bapela.

A deposit of R200,000 for the national ballot and R45,000 for each of the nine provincial ballots is paid by parties contesting both. The deposit is refunded in full to a party that wins at least one seat, and should the party fail to get a single seat, the money would be forfeited to the National Revenue Fund.

Bapela said a total of 22 political parties had paid their deposits and 12 had submitted candidates lists as at 9am yesterday.

“Approximately 34 parties had indicated their intention of contesting,” she said.

Bapela said no more than 400 candidates for the national election and no more than the total number of representatives for each provincial legislature would be accepted.

“The final list of candidates will be published on March 29,” she said.

The number of political parties contesting the national election has seen steady growth since the 1999 election where 18 were on the ballot paper. In 2014, there were 21 parties; 27 in 2009; and 29 in 2014.

The number of parties represented in the National Assembly, however, remained the same during the same period at 13 with a slight drop at 12 in 2004.

Political analyst Sanusha Naidu said the intention to pay the electoral fees was one thing but another to actually do, due to various constraints including the lack of funding of the smaller political parties.

“Nevertheless, the people who support you would support, but funding makes the electoral terrain much more fragmented,” said Naidu.

She said at the same time, it would be a test of the parties’ mettle.

“Smaller parties have a role to play in multiparty democracy and this highlights the challenges that these parties face. Everybody has a right to form a political party.”

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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