OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday 8.00pm.
SIXTEEN political parties will contest South Africa’s second democratic election on June 2, three fewer than during the first all-race poll in 1994, election officials announced on Saturday.
Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chief electoral officer Mandla Mchunu told a press conference that, in all, 26 parties will contest national or provincial elections which are to be held on the same day, including 10 parties in the running at provincial level only.
Five parties which had registered for the provincial polls failed to meet IEC requirements, Mchunu said.
To be eligible, parties had until 5pm on Friday to pay deposits of R100000 for the national elections and R20000 for each province contested.
The parties had also to submit their final lists of candidates by that time.
The IEC said last month that 18.177 million people — more than 80% of the country’s 22 million voters — had registered to vote in the election.
The National Assembly comprises 200 members of parliament drawn from the parties’ national lists and another 200 from lists drawn up by the nine provinces. — AFP