ALMOST 15 000 candidates will be contesting for 887 seats in the upcoming national and provincial elections in May 2024.
Briefing the media in Tshwane on Tuesday, 16 April, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said it has issued certificates to the 14 889 candidates who will contest 887 seats in the forthcoming elections.
IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo said nominations of candidates closed on 8 March 2024 and after following processes of verifications and objections, 70 political parties and 11 independent candidates were published as final contestants in these elections.
He said 15 political parties are contesting all tiers of the elections, which means the compensatory seats in the National Assembly, the nine province-to-national elections as well as the nine provincial legislatures.
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“A total of 31 political parties will contest the national elections for the first time. An analysis of the list of candidates reflects that at 58,14% or 8 658 are male, with female candidates at 41,86% or 6 234.
“Candidates in the age category 40-49 are the majority at 4 361, followed by the 3 708 in the 50-59 age category and the 3 406 in the 30-39 age group,” said Mamabolo.
He said voters who are over 60 years old stand at 1 924 and those between the ages of 18-29 are 1 493.
“Notably, there are 15 candidates who at 18 years are also first-time voters. Of the 15, nine are female and six are male. These candidates are spread across eight political parties. There are 17 candidates who are aged 80 years and more.”
“On gender representation, 15 political parties have a female representation of 50% and above. Seven parties achieved a 40% and a further 14 parties have a 30% female representation on their lists,” he said.
