The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will announce the list of final candidates in upcoming elections only after the Electoral Court has ruled on the eligibility of some candidates, an official said on Friday.
Senior electoral officer Michael Hendrickse said the court was expected to make a ruling on Friday.
”Depending what the decision is, it may mean that a number of candidates are now removed from the candidates’ lists,” he told SABC radio.
”We will be waiting until we have the court’s decision so that we can implement it either way and then release the list of final candidates that will be contesting the national and provincial elections.”
Earlier this week, the Electoral Court delayed a decision because there were problems with the papers filed, which were ”not in a proper state”, Justice Kenneth Mthiyane said.
The court had to decide on the eligibility of 110 candidates who did not appear on the voters’ roll.
IEC chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula had objected to the candidates, but her decision was overturned by the IEC, whose commissioners disagreed with her.
The Electoral Act does not stipulate whether or not a candidate should be registered as a voter.
The matter was referred to the Electoral Court for clarity.
The 110 are among the 297 candidates, from 28 political parties, to whom Tlakula had objected.
Hendrickse also said there were some other potential problems with some candidates.
”There is one person that’s not a South African citizen, but he appears on four different lists,” said Hendrickse.
This candidate did not appear on four different party lists but on more than one provincial list for the same party, he explained.
But Hendrickse also said there were ”one or two candidates” whose names were on more than one party lists. — Sapa