Candidate lists: 51 objections of 52 overturned – IEC

South Africans had a four-day window to object to a candidate on the lists of the 48 political parties contesting the 8 May elections. The party lists are available on the IEC website.

The Constitution states that every voter is eligible to be a Member of Parliament except:

  • unrehabilitated insolvents

  • declared to be of unsound mind by a court

  • sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment without a fine option, but only after an appeal, and this disqualification ends five years after the sentence is completed.

The Commission considered and made determinations on all objections and notified the objectors and affected parties of their finding by 8 April 2019. Any party, candidate or objector aggrieved by the decision of the Commission then had until 11 April 2019 to appeal to the Electoral Court.

This election year the IEC confirmed it had received objections to the nominations of 52 candidates (45 in 2014) for parliament and provincial legislatures affecting nine political parties. Of those 52 objections, 29 candidates are on the ANC candidate list. Other objections included 19 against candidates representing the BLF, 13 against candidates representing the EFF, 4 each against candidates representing the DA and Land Party, and 1 each against candidates representing the ACDP, AIC, ACM and ATA.

Only one of the objections were upheld - by the PAC against its own candidate, Seropane Alton Mphethi. According to the IEC, he was sentenced on 7 June 2016 to 18 months’ imprisonment without the option of a fine. This disqualifies him from holding elected office.

The Commission dismissed all other objections for failing to meet the constitutional and statutory criteria and said 'the majority of these objections related to unproven allegations'.

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