Pretoria - People who want to lodge objections regarding candidate lists published by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) have until 5pm to do so.
Last week, the IEC published the lists of candidates for each party on its website for public inspection.
However, the lists will be available on the website for inspection until today’s 5pm deadline, meaning that any objection to lists of candidates, in terms of Section 30 of the Electoral Act, must be submitted to the IEC’s head office in Centurion in writing before 5pm today.
Such objections must indicate the reason for the objection to a candidate and must show that a copy of the objection has also been lodged with the relevant political party.
The lists comprise approximately 9 000 candidates and are published per political party in alphabetical order, comprising national, regional and provincial lists.
The list of candidates on the IEC website is abbreviated for security reasons and does not include supporting documentation or ID numbers. The abbreviated lists have been available from March 28 at all IEC offices.
The comprehensive list, including all supporting documentation, was available for inspection at the IEC head office in Centurion during office hours from 8am to 5pm from last week Friday, 28 March and yesterday Monday, March 31.
The Commission will rule on any objections by Monday, 7 April, while any appeals to the rulings must be submitted to the Electoral Court by 10 April.
The final deadline for decisions of the Electoral Court is 15 April, following which the final list of candidates contesting the elections will be published on 22 April and certificates issued to candidates by 24 April.
The general election will be held on May 7. - SAnews.gov.za
