How to object to a candidate on a party list

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South Africans have a four-day window to object to a candidate on the lists of the 48 political parties contesting the 8 May elections. The party lists are available on the IEC website.

An objection against a candidate must be made by 5pm on Tuesday, 2 April.

The Constitution states that every voter is eligible to be a Member of Parliament except:

  • unrehabilitated insolvents

  • declared to be of unsound mind by a court

  • sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment without a fine option, but only after an appeal, and this disqualification ends five years after the sentence is completed.

To object to a candidate, you need to do the following:

objection

The Commission will consider and make a determination on all objections and notify the objectors and affected parties of their finding by 8 April 2019.

Any party, candidate or objector aggrieved by the decision of the Commission then has until 11 April 2019 to appeal to the Electoral Court.

In 2014, there were 45 objections and one was upheld by the IEC. The candidate had been convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison — and it had been less than five years since the candidate's release from prison.