Johannesburg - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has handed over the list of designated Members of Parliament to Chief Justice Pius Langa.
The list contains the names of the members political parties have chosen to represent them in Parliament until the next General Elections.
Chairperson of the IEC, Dr Brigalia Bam, presented the list on behalf of the Electoral Commission to Justice Langa at a ceremony at Constitution Hill on Wednesday.
Top of the African National Congress' list is Jacob Zuma, who is then expected to be elected President when the National Assembly sits for the first time on 6 May as the ANC won the majority of the votes in the 2009 election.
Current President Kgalema Motlanthe and Deputy President Baleka Mbete are second and third on the ANC's list respectively. There are many new names as well as old, such as Trevor Manuel, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Jeff Radebe and Lindiwe Sisulu to name a few.
The Democratic Alliance had current Mayor of Cape Town Helen Zille as their top candidate, while the Congress of the People listed Reverend Mvume Dandala as their first candidate.
Following the declaration of the results of the National and Provincial Elections, Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of the Provincial Legislatures (MPLs) are designated according to the party's candidate lists submitted before the election.
Out of the 26 parties who contested the elections for the National Assembly on 22 April, 13 parties won seats to be represented in Parliament.
The African National Congress won 264 seats, the Democratic Alliance won 67 seats, the Congress of the People won 30 seats, the Inkatha Freedom Party won 18 seats.
The minority parties, including the Independent Democrats, United Democratic Movement and Vryheidsfront Plus each won four seats; the African Christian Democratic Party won 3 seats, the United Christian Democratic Party won two seats and the African People's Convention, Azanian People's Organisation, Minority Front, Pan Africanist Congress of Azania all won one seat each.
According to the IEC, parties who had candidates who were eligible for more than one list, had until 5pm on Monday to inform the Chief Electoral Officer in which legislature the candidate would serve.
"This typically happens if a candidate is on a party's national and provincial list, and given the seats the party is allocated, has a choice to take up a seat in either legislature.
"The same situation occurs where the candidate is on a regional list and a provincial list. Where a party informs the IEC of the choice, that candidate's name is removed from the other list and the next person on that list will be designated. No re-ordering of lists is allowed," the IEC explained.
If a party fails to inform the IEC of their choice, the candidate is removed from all lists on which he/she appears, and the next candidates in line are designated. Parties with such a scenario were notified and have indicated the choice of where these "duplicates" must be designated to.
The IEC designates Members of Parliament as per the final list of candidates.
No changes, other than referred to above, are made to final lists. Thus, if a candidate has been expelled by the party, resigned, does not want to take up his/her seat or has passed away, the IEC still has to designate such candidate. Once a candidate has been designated, it is then for the relevant party to inform the Secretary of that Legislature of the vacancy, said the IEC
The list of designated Members of Parliament and of the nine Provincial Legislatures was published in the Government Gazette on 28 April 2009. The published lists are available on the IEC website at www.elections.org.za
