IEC looks abroad for printing of bigger ballot papers

The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) is considering international companies for the printing of ballot papers for 2024’s national elections.

The Human Sciences Research Council released its findings on the IEC and voter patterns and confidence at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday.

The commission said local printing companies did not have the capacity to handle double-column ballots.

KwaZulu-Natal electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga said this was prompted by the signing of the amended Electoral Act, which requires an added column for independent candidates on the ballot.

“We have already scanned the environment for the printing capacity of this country and the type of ballot paper we are likely to end up with. The printing industry has demonstrated they do not have that capacity and we are looking abroad to printing companies able to produce the kind of paper we need for the ballot paper,” she said.

The act was signed into law on April 17 but has already faced threats of legal challenges.

Masinga said the act will make “slight modifications” to the electoral system instead of the “drastic changes” expected.

“We expected there was going to be pushback from sectors of society that expected to see a drastic change, but it was not possible in the time frame parliament had to do this job.”

The parliamentary processes that had to be followed from when the court ruling was made in June 2020 and the challenges the consultation process faced, made it impossible to make wholesale changes to the electoral system in time for next year’s elections by the time the bill was passed into law in April.

Masinga said the 400-member legislature is made up of 200 seats assigned according to the list of candidates provided to the IEC by parties at national level and another 200 on the regional list seconded by provinces.

“We have never had to explain this in the past, but since the advent of independents it is important that we explain it,” she said.

In future, the legislature will be divided into 200 seats assigned to political parties while the 200 regional seats will be split between political parties and independent candidates.

“The independents are going to feature in the national ballot [but] will only contest the 200 [regional] seats because the other 200 are reserved for political parties.”

This means voters will have three ballots for 2024’s elections: one for provincial elections and two ballots for the national legislature featuring parties and regional candidates.

Masinga said there would be no by-elections in the event of a vacancy. Instead the IEC will “re-work” the quota from the results and allocate again using the Droop quota system.

The IEC insisted the challenges and changes will not affect the start of the elections, including the issue of ballot papers.

“We start planning the elections from the time we announce results for the previous election. We have to be combat-ready and we have already started.

“We are planning to hold elections in May next year because that’s the first week the legislation has for us to hold elections. We have a window of 90 days but all our systems are in place for us to deliver elections in May 2024.”

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