The Electoral Commission welcomes today’s proclamation of the 2019 National and Provincial Elections by the President and provincial Premiers. The proclamation triggers the official election timetable which the Electoral Commission will discuss with the National Party Liaison Committee tomorrow before publishing in a Government Gazette. The proposed election timetable spans the next 71 days and lays down the key dates and deadlines for various milestones until voting day on 8 May 2019.

1. Media Statement
Proclamation of 2019 National and Provincial Elections
The Electoral Commission welcomes today’s proclamation of the 2019 National and Provincial Elections
by the President and provincial Premiers. The proclamation triggers the official election timetable which
the Electoral Commission will discuss with the National Party Liaison Committee tomorrow before
publishing in a Government Gazette. The proposed election timetable spans the next 71 days and lays
down the key dates and deadlines for various milestones until voting day on 8 May 2019.
The proclamation places the preparation of the elections into a different trajectory. It gives a greater
impetus to the currently unfolding election preparations. The Commission will now have to escalate its
preparations so that all electoral activities are accomplished in time for Election Day. In this regard, no
effort will be spared to avail to voters a credible electoral process.
The first legal consequence of the proclamation is to close the voters’ roll for this year’s elections. This
means no new applicants may be admitted to the voters’ roll for purposes of the 2019 National and
Provincial Elections. This will include both additional registrations and re-registrations.
Voters who will be outside of the Republic and who intend to vote at embassies and consulates need to
notify the chief electoral officer of this fact and the mission at which they intend voting. In this regard,
voters have 15 days to complete the notification (VEC10) which is now available on the website of the
Electoral Commission.
Proclamation of the election date also triggers the opening of candidate nomination for the elections.
The closing date for candidate nomination will be regulated in terms of the election timetable.
Registered political parties intending to contest the 2019 National and Provincial Elections must submit
their lists either:
• Using the Electoral Commission’s Online Candidate Nomination System at
https://www.elections.org.za/MyIEC/Account/Login); or
• Delivered by hand only to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer at Election House, Riverside
Office Park, 1303 Heuvel Avenue, Centurion.
The Electoral Commission launched the Online Candidate Nomination System ahead of the 2016
Municipal Elections to speed up and simplify the process of submitting candidate nomination lists for
elections by allowing parties to capture their own information and then submit it electronically via the
internet by the deadline. At the time, more than half of the nearly 64 000 candidate nominations were
submitted online.
Among the key benefits of the system are:
• Parties can capture their own information reducing errors and the time required

2. • Real-time verification of eligibility of candidates
• Electronically generated acceptance of nomination forms obviating the need to manually
complete forms for each candidate
• Access to a payment gateway to facilitate ease of payment
• Exporting and importing spreadsheets for each municipality to allow for copy and paste of
candidate data that may be in existing political party database
• Progress reports for all elections contested by a party
• Instant confirmation of the list of candidates and legislature contested.
To contest the 2019 elections the following amounts are to be deposited by registered political parties
in terms of section 27(2) of the Electoral Act, Act 73 of 1998:
• R 200 000 in respect of an election of the National Assembly, and
• R 45 000 in respect of an election of a Provincial Assembly.
The deposit may be paid using any of the following methods:
• Bank guaranteed cheque in favour of the Electoral Commission;
• Use of the payment gateway on the Online Candidate Nomination System;
• Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) or direct deposit into the Electoral Commission’s bank account.
The total cost for a political party to contest the 2019 National and Provincial Elections is R605 000:
• National Assembly = R 200 000
• Plus 9 Provincial Assemblies x R45 000 = R 405 000.
The amounts are the same as those used in the 2014 National and Provincial Elections. The retention of
the same deposits since 2014 means a significant reduction in the amount in real terms.
Parties which fail to secure a seat in the National Assembly or provincial legislature forfeit their deposit
to the National Revenue Fund. The number of votes required to secure a seat in both the national and
provincial legislatures depends on the voter turnout of the elections. In 2014 parties required 45 892
votes to be guaranteed a seat in the National Assembly and between 13 627 votes (Northern Cape) and
59 219 votes (Gauteng) for a provincial seat.
Should political parties elect to submit nominations manually they may still do so at the national office
of the Electoral Commission in Centurion during the window period for submissions.

3. A total of 8 651 candidates were nominated for the previous National and Provincial Elections in 2014, 2
089 of whom were nominated for the National Assembly, and 6 562 for the provincial legislatures and
regional lists.
For more information on submitting candidate lists for the 2019 National and Provincial Elections, please
refer to http://www.elections.org.za/content/Parties/How-to-contest-national-and-provincial-elections/