Electoral Commission Asks Political Parties To Send Submissions On Distribution Of Regional Seats

The Electoral Commission (IEC) on Tuesday asked all the parties to send submissions for the distribution of the 200 regional seats in the National Assembly.

In the National Assembly, 200 are regional seats and another 200 are compensatory seats. The submissions will be closed on Feb. 20.

"This work is an important precursor to candidate nomination, as it will enable political parties to know how many candidates they may field in each respective region to the national list," Chief Electoral Officer, Sy Mamabolo, said as per a report on SA News.

Mamabolo said that the IEC announced the quantum of election deposits for political parties as well as independent candidates who will be battling in the upcoming elections.

He noted that a political party that wants compensatory seats in the National Assembly and in all the nine regions requires a R300,000 deposit while the party will also require to have R50,000 for each of the provincial legislatures.

Furthermore, a party that contests the compensatory seats in the National Assembly and in at least one region will deposit R225,000 and R25,000 for each additional region. Whereas, the independent candidate will deposit R20,000 for each region and R15,000 for provincial legislature.

The Chief Electoral Officer said that the deposit will be refunded to those parties and independent representatives who win a seat.

"Independent candidates must be supported by 1,000 voters in a region or province in which they stand. Unrepresented parties must be endorsed by the equivalent of 15% of the quota of votes per seat in the previous election for a region or provincial legislature they intend to contest," Mamabolo added.

Mamabolo also reminded voters to register online or visit the electoral offices in their respective municipalities in case they are still not registered.

Earlier this week, the IEC announced that the first day of the second voter registration weekend gathered 304,221 voters at the voting station.