IEC urges early online candidate nominations

[00:00:00]The Electoral Commission is urging political parties and aspiring independent candidates to take advantage of the opportunity to submit their candidate nomination and supporter list through the online candidate nomination system, OCNS. For more on that on this election Wednesday brought to you by the IEC. We are joined now by the general manager for electoral matters at the Independent Electoral Commission.

[00:00:27]That's the Electoral Commission South Africa. IEC to you and I. James Appane, good evening. I have a feeling that you and I are going to be friends.

[00:00:34]>> Yes.

[00:00:35]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, well, we're going to spend a lot of time together, too.

[00:00:37]>> Spend a lot of time together.

[00:00:39]>> Here at your studios and when when you come to our home >> Here there everywhere.

[00:00:43]>> at the rock, the results operation center.

[00:00:45]>> As it should be.

[00:00:46]>> Yes, and let's first greet you guys and the viewers at home and wherever they are connecting to watch this episode.

[00:00:54]>> Sure.

[00:00:55]Today's topic feels a bit technical to me, but perhaps I'm just daunted because, you know, it's not my field.

[00:01:01]We're talking [snorts] about the OCNS, the online candidate nomination system.

[00:01:06]>> Yeah.

[00:01:06]>> What is it and how exactly does it fit in with the back end of this road to the 4th of November?

[00:01:13]>> I think you're right. I think one of the reasons why things appear to be technical is because of the abbreviations.

[00:01:18]>> Yeah.

[00:01:19]>> Let's get abbreviation out of the way then.

[00:01:21]OCNS is an abbreviation for online candidate nomination system.

[00:01:27]But before we get to the online part and the system part, let's stick to the middle part, which is candidate nomination.

[00:01:32]>> Mhm.

[00:01:33]>> Because that is as simple as it is.

[00:01:35]It's for people to nominate candidates so that they are part of an election comes the 4th of November this year.

[00:01:42]So, in simple terms, let's start with the process before we get into the system itself and the online part of that particular system.

[00:01:52]In terms of the process each and every person who is a registered voter is to participate in the election provided that person meets certain requirements.

[00:02:01]>> Mhm.

[00:02:02]>> Either as a political party, obviously, or as an individual. So, one of those requirements is to submit your candidacy for that election.

[00:02:11]And what we have done at the IEC is we made provision for both manual submissions and submissions at the comfort of your own home. Hence, we have this facility called OCNs, online candidate nomination system.

[00:02:26]Which we are the one planting, by the way.

[00:02:28]>> Yeah.

[00:02:28]>> Because it makes it very easy.

[00:02:31]And for the first time, let's look at this as an innovation to us.

[00:02:34]>> Mhm.

[00:02:34]>> We have not had early capture before.

[00:02:37]We've always had people to capture and submit within the official window period, which is yet to open. But for the first time, we made it possible that political parties and aspirant candidates can do what we call early capture.

[00:02:51]>> In fact, say a a bit more about that, because while the election is in November, you've had the system opened from June already. What does that tell us about the the the long lead time?

[00:03:01]What does it say about the importance of this process?

[00:03:04]>> And I like to I like the fact that you we're saying the system. Because I remember I said there's a process.

[00:03:10]>> Yes.

[00:03:10]>> So, the system here as has been opened early so that people can do early capture, make sure that the candidate requirements are met, because one of them is the fact that you need to be registered in the municipality where you would like to contest.

[00:03:23]So, the reason we opened early is the candidate nomination, to us, is a quite an intensive phase in the electoral process.

[00:03:31]Because there's only a limited window within which you can do formal submission.

[00:03:37]But the reason we opening it early so that as a party, you're going to submit lists. And we've seen an increase over the years, to us. Now, we sitting with about 10,300 seats, or we going to have those seats for the this upcoming elections.

[00:03:51]And we likely to have 100 or over 100,000 candidates that we need to capture. So, just imagine having to do that within that official window alone.

[00:04:00]>> Run Run those numbers by me again. So, the estimation is the number of seats what?

[00:04:05]Around 10,000?

[00:04:06]>> Yes, 10,300 more or less.

[00:04:08]>> Uh-huh.

[00:04:09]>> But, you're going to have just over 100,000 people that would like to take up those seats. You can see the magnitude within which people are going to give us those submissions. So, we as the IEC as part of our readiness for the first time we making sure that people themselves can capture, detect early errors that they themselves can pick up because the system is very intuitive and clever.

[00:04:32]When it comes to official submission, which is likely to open soon after proclamation in early August, then people can then make submissions and we have to before cut off they can sort out their list and order as per their preference.

[00:04:45]>> My introduction says submit candidate nomination and supporter list. Why supporter list? How does that fit in with the nomination process? What list is this now?

[00:04:56]>> Well, supporter list is actually the voters that support independent candidates. It's only 50 that is required.

[00:05:02]>> So, your candidate needs to be backed up by people who say, "If this person stood, I would vote for them."

[00:05:09]>> Well, beyond that, it means you are serious about elections. You're not just somebody who is just a a chancer, you know. You actually an active person in the society and therefore people will like to see you on the ballot. So, that's the reason why we have the supporters list for independent candidates. For parties, there's no need for supporters. It was a feature for NPE, but currently all they need to do is as I indicated certain requirements including the required deposit amounts that they need to pay.

[00:05:35]>> Let's talk about that. The whole required deposit amounts. This is This is before we get to that system, right?

[00:05:42]That whole point at which deposits need to be paid. And what are we looking at in terms of deposits at the moment if you have that information at hand?

[00:05:50]>> Yes, I do have some rough figures here to us. Let's start with the fact that this election is one of the most complex.

[00:05:58]Because instead of dealing with about 20 elections as we did in 2024, about 19 elections or to speak, we are now dealing with over 4,700 different elections. 47 uh 67 to be precise.

[00:06:14]>> Yeah.

[00:06:15]>> So, it means each and every election is slightly different because there will be different people that are contesting in that election.

[00:06:22]And for that, the commission has published and finalized the election deposits. And if you're a party wants to contest the entire uh South Africa in terms of the municipalities and the wards, you're likely to pay about 663 or 67,000 rands.

[00:06:42]When it comes to the candidates, they will be required to pay deposit of 1,800.

[00:06:47]And for muni- uh parties to contest municipalities, there will be different categories of municipalities. For instance, a local municipality will be a 3,500.

[00:06:58]But all in totality, I think it's better for a party to contest the entire uh space because you actually get a discount if you do that.

[00:07:06]>> All right, I see. So, do political parties take advantage of this uh online uh candidate nomination system? And And what are the advantages of doing so?

[00:07:15]Because from a political perspective, I can tell you now that many parties are still trying to figure out who will end up being their nominee in each and every one of the wards that they are going to contest.

[00:07:28]>> And this is exactly why we're doing it early, to us. So, that those tensions should not be pushed into the official nomination period. So, if parties start early, they themselves can also deal with diffusing tensions among themselves.

[00:07:41]Uh in the early indications are there about 20 parties as the CEO reported earlier uh uh today yesterday, sorry yesterday. So, now that number is increasing and the advantage is that you are going to be able to realize that so and so is actually nominated in more than one party. So, that when the official uh nomination period opens, then you can certainly see that well at what I have described that is not with me somewhere else.

[00:08:08]>> Does that happen? A person nominated in two different parties allowing themselves to be nominated by two different parties.

[00:08:15]>> Yes, at last.

[00:08:16]>> Hedging in a way basically.

[00:08:17]>> Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[00:08:19][laughter] Because you look uh democracy is actually very interesting and vibrant uh you know process. So, people the law allows them to do that and some people take that opportunity. But there's a period as contemplated in the soon-to-be-published election timetable wherein we will not allow people to be on multiple lists. You will have to decide which uh list you want to belong to as a candidate for a PR list or proportional presentation list.

[00:08:44]>> So, this is the point when it becomes formal.

[00:08:46]>> Absolutely.

[00:08:47]>> Because this this is almost preliminary, is it?

[00:08:50]>> Yes, actually this is preliminary uh for a lack of a better way to tell us and everyone listening here, let's call it a pre-nomination phase.

[00:08:58]>> Sure.

[00:08:59]>> Or early capture.

[00:09:01]>> All right.

[00:09:01]>> Because the official nomination starts soon after proclamation and I think it's very clear to clarify because we've had number of parties calling us and saying they expect candidate nomination to close because they've had that we have opened the system for early capture and because they know it's always a short period, they are actually asking themselves, uh we are left with about a week or so for this thing to close. So, it is not the case to us and everyone listening.

[00:09:26]The official opening will happen just after proclamation, but now you have got an opportunity to capture early so that your details are being uh sanitized.

[00:09:36]>> Parting shot as we always do, how do people access the system? You may or may not have the exact, uh, web addresses and and the apps and everything, but just give us a sense of the various pathways to access it.

[00:09:49]>> Look, we refer to the IEC's website as like a water hole, as in your bush where all animals will go there to get some water. We have all the information there, but additionally, you know that the internet is quite connected. If you search the internet for online candidate nomination, you're going to get the right link, and that link will be able to lead you to a facility where you need to create what we call an OPA, online party administrator. That's the person that is appointed by a party to manage all the candidate, uh, requirements or capturing of list for that party.

[00:10:23]Because we know that it is a momentous task, you are as a party administrator allowed to employ what we call sub-users to assist you with the capturing, but the responsibility remains that of the online party administrator. So, once you have got the OPA details, then you're allowed to capture early, detect problems, fix them, so that by the time official candidate nomination opens, then you are able to just comply.

[00:10:48]>> All right, thank you for that. Thanks for coming through and actually making this, simplifying it, because as I was saying, it sounded technical, but I think I'm clearer now. That is the, uh, general manager for electoral matters at the, uh, Electoral Commission of South Africa, the IEC, to you and I, James Apaalo in our Elections Wednesday, brought to you by the IEC.