- Political parties will have four more hours to submit the names of their candidates intending to contest the local government polls.
- Initially, the deadline was Monday at 17:00, but it has been pushed back to 21:00.
- To date, 97 political parties and 353 independent candidates have either captured their nominations or submitted nominations.
Political parties and independent candidates intending to contest the local government elections, who have been scrambling to submit their candidate lists to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), have been given a reprieve as the deadline has been pushed back from Monday at 17:00 to 21:00.
The new deadline was announced by the IEC on Monday morning. The elections are scheduled for 27 October 2021.
In a statement, the electoral body said political parties and independent candidates intending to contest the elections now "have until 21h00 today (Monday) to submit their nominations and prescribed election deposits".
To date, 97 political parties and 353 independent candidates have either captured their nominations or have submitted nominations.
In terms of the election timetable, the cut-off date is Monday, 23 August 2021 and the prescribed election deposits are also due on Monday.
The IEC statement added:
Failure to make payment for election deposits on Monday will result in the automatic disqualification of the party or independent candidate affected.
The IEC also announced that "failure to pay deposits on due date is incapable of being remedied through a non-compliance procedure" (sic).
The commission will refund a party any deposit paid if the party is allocated at least a seat in the municipal council it is contesting.
Similarly, an independent candidate who receives at least 10% of the total number of votes cast in a ward election will have the deposit refunded.
Final list
Only registered political parties may contest elections of municipal councils by way of party lists.
Parties and independent candidates may submit their documents online at www.elections.org.za or visit a designated local office of the commission. The list of the designated offices is available on the website.
The electoral commission will have until Friday, 27 August to notify political parties and independent candidates of any non-compliance in respect of outstanding documents.
Thereafter, the commission will have until 31 August to notify parties of any candidates appearing on multiple party lists. The affected parties will have until 2 September, 17:00 to decide whether to remove such candidates and change their lists.
The final list of candidates will be certified and published on 7 September 2021.
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