The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has found that 42 candidates appeared on the list of more than one party.
This was after the IEC completed one phase of the process ahead of the polls in May.
The commission had asked parties to establish if there were candidates who appeared on the lists of other parties.
Political parties were given until Monday to identify candidates who appeared on the lists of other parties before they go to the elections.
“In all, there were 42 candidates appearing on more than one party list, implicating 39 parties. Furthermore, one candidate was nominated as an independent and also appeared on a list of a party,” said the IEC.
It added there were 14,662 candidates who were vying for 887 seats in Parliament and provincial legislatures.
“The biggest ballot paper will contain 56 contestants. This is the ballot for the compensatory seats in the National Assembly. The biggest regional election ballot will be in the Gauteng region with 40 political parties and two independent candidates. Similarly, the biggest ballot in respect of provincial legislature elections will be in Gauteng with 42 political parties and two independent candidates.
“Seven independent candidates will contest the regional elections and six will contest the provincial legislature elections. The region with the most number of independent candidates is the Limpopo region with three candidates.”
The IEC also said objections were open against any candidate who has been nominated for the elections, either at national level or in the provincial legislatures.
The commission will consider the objections on Thursday.
There were several grounds on which people may lodge objections against any candidate. This includes people who have been convicted and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison.
Former president Jacob Zuma is number one on the list of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party. He was convicted in 2021 for defying an order of the court.
The Constitutional Court sentenced him to 15 months in prison.
IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo previously said the law was clear on people who have been convicted and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison, that they were not eligible to stand as candidates.
The commission reiterated this.
“Anyone who, after this section took effect, is convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment without the option of a fine, either in the Republic, or outside the Republic if the conduct constituting the offence would have been an offence in the Republic, but no one may be regarded as having been sentenced until an appeal against the conviction or sentence has been determined, or until the time for an appeal has expired. A disqualification under this paragraph ends five years after the sentence has been completed,” said the IEC.
The elections are set to take place on May 29.
The commission told Parliament a few weeks ago that it may need to increase its staff because of the demand to count ballot papers.
The IEC will print more than 90 million ballot papers. There were currently 27.7m people who were registered to vote in the elections.
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