When South Africans to the polls next week to vote in the country’s seventh democratic elections, they will be given three ballot papers instead of two.

The Electoral Commission (IEC) has urged voters to carefully review and mark each of these three ballot papers before depositing them into the ballot box.

IEC Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sy Mamabolo reminded voters that they can only put one mark on each ballot, as more than one mark will result in a spoiled vote and will not be counted.

“The Universal Ballot Template (UBT), whose dimensions are benchmarked against the longest ballot paper, is in production and will be available in all voting stations. The UBT can be used by blind and partially sighted people, low-vision users, people who are dyslexic, and people with motor and neuron conditions which do not allow for a steady hand,” said Mr Mamabolo.

South Africans will go to the polls on Wednesday May 29, to vote for leaders of the seventh administration. Following the amendment of the Electoral Act, which was signed into law in April 2023, the 27.79 million registered voters will receive three ballot papers to elect candidates to represent them in the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures.

“This amendment revised the electoral system to allow independent candidates to contest in the regional (province-to-national) tier of the National Assembly and the Provincial Legislatures. Although the phenomenon of three ballots will be familiar to voters in various local municipalities, it will be new to voters in metropolitan areas and for the first time in general elections for national and provinces,” Mr Mamabolo said.

Get to know the 3 ballot papers

National Ballot

This ballot will consist of a list of political parties vying for 200 seats in the National Assembly. This ballot will be used to vote for political parties. There are currently 52 parties who will be on this ballot and the configuration will be a dual column.

Regional or Province-to-National Ballot

This will have political parties and independent candidates contesting for the seats reserved for each province in the National Assembly. Voters will use this ballot to elect a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in the National Assembly. The number of contestants range from 30 to 44 on regional ballots. The configuration of this ballot is a single column.

Provincial Ballots

This ballot is unique to each province and includes parties and independent candidates competing for seats in each respective provincial legislature. This ballot will allow voters to choose either a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in provincial legislatures. The number of contestants range from 24 to 45 on the provincial legislature ballots.

The Commission has decided that the design of the ballot papers will be underpinned by the following identifiers:

Full registered name of the party
A photograph of the registered party leader
Registered abbreviated name of the party
The registered emblem or symbol of the party
In respect of independent candidate, the ballot papers will have the name of the independent; a photograph bearing the face of the independent and the word “independent”.

“There are a total of 400 contested seats in the National Assembly. The proportional representation compensatory 200 seats will be contested by political parties only and there is a dedicated ballot paper for this tier of the National Assembly,” said Mr Mamabolo.

“The remaining regional or province-to-national 200 seats will be contested by independent candidates and political parties. This tier of the National Assembly will also have a dedicated ballot paper. This means that National Assembly elections will be based on two ballot papers (national ballot and the newly introduced regional or province-to-national ballot).”

In respect of the elections of the National Assembly voters may elect a preferred party on the national ballot and elect another preferred party or independent on the regional ballot. However, in respect of provincial elections, voters will elect a preferred party or independent candidate on a single provincial ballot, Mr Mamabolo said.

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Understand the 3 ballot papers before you go to the polls