IEC final list is 62% male as parties sign conduct code next week

The final list of candidates for the 4 November municipal elections is 62% male and 38% female, and the Independent Electoral Commission wants parties to do better next time.

The Commission published the list at Elections House in Centurion, in a step that closes one stage of its election timetable and opens another. With the candidates now fixed, the Commission can begin printing ballot papers.

Its call to parties is aimed at future elections rather than this one. The Commission wants more young people and more women placed on party lists, and it has put that request on the record at the point where the imbalance is easiest to count.

The numbers on the final list

The 62 to 38 split is the Commission’s own figure for the candidates who will appear on the 4 November ballot papers. It covers the lists as submitted and accepted, and it is the first time this cycle that the gender balance of the full field has been set out in public.

The publication of the final list is a milestone in the Commission’s timetable. It is the document that unlocks the printing of ballot papers, and it means the field of candidates is now settled for the purposes of the vote.

The ANC’s appeal is still pending

The African National Congress lost its candidate list case at the Electoral Court, and it has lodged an appeal. The Commission says its election timetable will continue while that appeal is pending.

The party had sought to get 181 candidates onto the election ballot. Its branches have also protested over disputed ward councillor candidate lists.

That is where the practical risk sits for voters. A timetable that runs on while a candidate list case is under appeal leaves open the question of what happens to any ward where the courts later order a change. The Commission has not paused its preparations, and ballot printing now proceeds on the list as published.

What voters have to do, and when

Two dates matter to ordinary voters over the next ten days.

Applications for special votes open next Monday. Special votes are cast by voters who cannot reach a voting station on election day, including the elderly, the infirm and people who will be absent from their voting district.

The following Wednesday, all parties are due to sign the Code of Conduct. The Code binds parties and candidates to accepted standards of behaviour during the campaign, and the signing is a fixed point in the Commission’s timetable.

The campaign ahead

With the candidate list published and ballot printing under way, the campaign moves into its final stretch before 4 November. Parties now know exactly who they are fielding and where, and the Commission has the document it needs to produce the ballot papers.

The Commission’s message to the parties is that the 38% figure is not good enough and that the next round of list submissions should look different. It has made that case publicly, before the votes are cast rather than after.

Source: eNCA, Parties must consider more female candidates - IEC