The Electoral Commission of South Africa has moved to clear the confusion over the updates from the election results dashboard last week.
THE ELECTORAL Commission of South Africa (IEC) has moved to clear the confusion over the updates from the election results dashboard last week.
In a statement issued at the weekend, the IEC said that in the May 29 elections, registered voters received two ballots for the National Assembly elections.
“It was one national ballot and one regional ballot, while the third ballot paper was for provincial elections. Just over 16 million registered voters cast their vote across the nine regional and one national ballot.
“The Electoral Act prescribes that for the calculation of compensatory seats, both national compensatory ballots (N) and regional ballots (R) are taken into account. Hence the demotion of N and R on the results dashboard,” the IEC said.
It added that this is done to ensure the allocation of compensatory seats take into account the regional strength of political parties, thus meeting the proportional representation demanded by the Constitution.
The IEC has come under immense scrutiny after the May 29 polls, with the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party wanting the results of the election scrapped and for President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce a new date for another election.
The party has also filed new court documents, asking the Electoral Court to have the election set aside.
The MK Party, led by former president Jacob Zuma, believes that the elections were not free and fair.
