Electoral Commission Confirms Readiness For 2024 National And Provincial Elections

Electoral Commission Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo confirmed on Tuesday that all systems are ready for the upcoming National and Provincial Elections, scheduled for May 29.

South Africans will vote this month to choose the leaders of the seventh election in the country since the end of the apartheid era in 1994. The upcoming elections feature 70 political parties and 11 independent candidates approved by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

In total, more than 14,903 candidates are competing for 887 seats in the National and Provincial Legislatures. Whereas, the number of registered voters is 27.79 million. Ahead of May 29 voting day, South Africans living abroad will be voting on May 17 (Friday) and May 18 (Saturday) via the embassy.

"In these elections, voters will receive three ballot papers: the national compensatory ballot for political parties, provincial and regional for parties and independent candidates," Mamabolo said while addressing media in Pretoria, SA News reported.

Mamabolo further mentioned that lease agreements for 23,303 permanent voting stations have been signed and finalized.

"Of these, 62% are schools, 9.7% are places of worship and the balance of 28% include all other categories, such as community halls and other municipal facilities," he added.

The Chief Electoral Officer noted that the IEC is in the completion stage of training 202,500 voting officials, who will be responsible for looking over the electoral process in the voting stations.

"The addition of a new category of staff to assist the presiding officer with the counting effort is another significant step towards improving the quality of counting," he said, adding that there has been a total of 191,185 staff members appointed.

Ahead of the upcoming elections, the commission on May 22 will launch the National Results Operations Centre, based at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg.

"It will house Commission members, as well as representatives of key service providers such as Eskom and Parliament, representatives of contestants running in the national elections, domestic and international observer missions, and media organizations," he added.

The commission proudly announced that a record number of 160 organizations, with 5,000 observers from both, within South Africa and around the world, will be analyzing the country's 2024 General Elections.

Last week, IEC said it is working with the Department of International Cooperation and Cooperation to ship the voting materials including voting booths, ballot boxes and papers, stationery packs, lists of people and everything relevant to the procedure.