POLOKWANE – It is important for voters to know the effective use of ballot papers, which they will find when they cast votes on May 29 for desired political representatives, mostly through political parties, the Provincial Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has said.

According to an information statement that IEC’s Simon Thobakgale shared with Polokwane Observer this week, a voter should expect three ballots that they must mark adjacent to their desired contestant using a cross once on each to avoid being regarded as spoiled.

1. The National Ballot is blue in colour.

“It will be used to vote for a political party to represent you in parliament. It consists of names of political parties contesting for the 200 compensatory seats in the National Assembly. There are 52 political parties who will be on this ballot and because of the high number of contesting parties, the configuration will be a double column,” the statement reads.

2. The Regional Ballot paper also known as the Province-to-National Ballot is orange in colour.

“It is to vote for a political party or independent candidate to represent your province in the National Assembly. It will have names of political parties and independent candidates contesting for the 200 seats reserved for provinces in the National Assembly. It will be a single column ballot and unique per region/province. No matter how many parties and independents you find on this ballot paper, you only vote for one, either a party or independent,” it went further.

3. The Provincial Ballot is pink in colour.

“It is unique to each province and includes parties and independent candidates competing for seats in each respective provincial legislature. This ballot will have names of political parties and independent candidates competing to represent you in your provincial legislatures.”

The IEC said the following can also assist with easy identification:

For political parties:

“Full registered name of the party, photograph of the registered party leader, registered abbreviated name of the party, registered emblem or symbol of the party, the box to make your mark with X and Universal Ballot Template (UBT) hole for the blind and partially sighted voters, low-vision users, and people with an unsteady hand.”

For independent candidates:

“The name of the independent and photograph bearing the candidate. The word “INDEPENDENT”, the box to make your mark with X, and a UBT hole as described above,” the statement mentioned.