Pretoria - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has given political parties a last chance to rectify mistakes made on the candidate's lists that were submitted on 2 March.
The IEC on Monday decided on the objections made against nominated candidates of political parties. The Commission then notified both the objectors and the parties whose candidates were being objected to.
"In those cases the IEC is allowing parties a further opportunity to rectify this omission by not later than Wednesday, 25 March," the IEC said.
However, appeals to the decisions of the IEC may be lodged with the Electoral Court by 26 March. The Electoral Court serves as a court of final instance and its decisions will be made known by 31 March.
On the cut-off date last Wednesday, the IEC had received 338 objections against candidates out of a total of 9 425.
In terms of the Electoral Act, any person, including the chief electoral officer, may lodge an objection with the Commission against any nominated candidate.
There were 297 objections that were lodged by the Chief Electoral Officer, Pansy Tlakula.
She said a total of 176 candidates nominations were not submitted and was therefore bound by the Code and Acceptance.
Two of the candidates that were nominated were deceased, she said, while Identity Documents (ID) of six candidates were not found in the national population register.
Ms Tlakula further said three candidates were found to be non-South Africans, while a further 110 candidates were not on the voter's roll.
The IEC indicated that of the 297 candidates that objected, 28 were from political parties.
In addition to the objections lodged by the chief electoral officer, there were 41 objections which were received from individuals, candidates themselves and/or political parties.
According to the IEC, many people used the publication to familiarise themselves with candidates on the various party lists as well as to raise objections against any of those candidates in terms of Section 30 of the Electoral Act, 1998 (Act 73 of 1998).
The public could object if the candidate was not qualified to stand in the election in terms of Sections 47 and 106 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
The public could also raise objections if the candidate had not signed an acceptance of nomination as prescribed as well as if the candidate had not signed the prescribed undertaking to be bound by the Code of Conduct.
The Electoral Commission will then compile a final list of candidates on or before 3 April 2009, and on 7 April 2009 candidates will be issued with their certificates.
