On May 29, voters will receive three ballot papers at 22 296 voting stations. This is different from before and I have encountered huge amount of confusion about this change. With a shrinking budget, it seems that the IEC can only do limited voter education, so unless political parties start doing their bit, we might see many spoilt ballots.

Before the 1994 election, there were major concerns about voter literacy. Given that for the majority of voters it was their first opportunity to vote, many wondered what would happen.  In particular, they feared that a large number of spoilt ballots would raise questions around the legitimacy of the election outcome. 

The electoral commission together with political parties made a huge effort to do voter education with banners, TV and radio advertisements, sample ballot papers and workshops. All party candidates were sent out with instructions to not only promote their different parties, but to also explain the voting process.

It paid off. 

Of the almost 20 million people that voted in the first democratic election, just under 200 000 (1%) of ballots were spoilt or rendered invalid.  

Subsequent elections saw similar outcomes with the number of spoilt ballots never exceeding 1,5% of total votes in national and provincial elections. 

Following the ruling of the Constitutional Court in 2020 that independent candidates must also be allowed to contest elections on Provincial and National level, political parties agreed on a number of changes to the Electoral Act, which resulted in a three-ballot system – two for the National Assembly and one for the Provincial Legislatures. 

The first ballot for the National Assembly will have the names of the 54 registered political parties on it and will be identical throughout the country. The list will be topped by the Alliance of Citizens for Change (ACC), followed by the other parties in alphabetical order. 

You might wonder why the ACC?

To be fair and prevent all parties from giving themselves a name starting with the letter A, the IEC draws the name of a party out of a hat. That party then tops the ballot and the other parties follow alphabetically. In 1994 for example, the PAC was at the top, followed by the Vryheidsfront, the Women’s Rights Peace Party, the Ximoko Progressive Party and the African Muslim Party. (What ever happened to all of them?)

So, ballot one should be familiar to most of us and shouldn’t be too complicated. 

The second ballot for the National Assembly, is called the Regional Ballot Paper and will look differently in every province - with both parties and, in some provinces, independent candidates on it. 

The last ballot will be for the provincial legislatures. As in the case of the regional ballot, the provincial ballot papers will differ from province to province and have political parties as well as, in some provinces, independent candidates. 

So, all-in-all there will be 19 different ballot papers throughout the country. One for the National Assembly which will look the same throughout the country as well as 9 regional ballots for the National Assembly and 9 for the different provincial legislatures.

Ironically, or perhaps sadly, only 13 independent candidates appear across the different ballots. Diamond dealer and close friend of Jacob Zuma, Louis Liebenberg, is standing in 4 provinces on the regional ballot, despite the final liquidation order against his company Tariomix.  However, if he is personally declared bankrupt before the election, he will constitutionally not be eligible to stand.  

There are another six independent candidates on the regional lists (for the National Assembly) and six (two in Gauteng, one in KZN, two in Limpopo and one in the Free State) on the various list for the provincial legislatures.

On a positive note: the three-ballot system is an excellent opportunity for people to use their votes creatively, by splitting it between parties and/or independent candidates.

For example, the recent SRF opinion poll indicated that Musi Maimane’s BOSA had 7% support in Kwa-Zulu Natal on the regional lists for the National Assembly, whilst not registering above 2% anywhere else. Equally Rise Mzansi had 4% support on the regional list in Gauteng. 

However, the three-ballot system can also be confusing for voters and it is in the interest of political parties to their educate supporters on the changes. The only problem is that they will most likely stick with a narrative of “just vote for us on all three ballots”. So, despite financial pressure, it is important that the IEC embarks on extensive voter education in the next few weeks so that there will be a clear understanding of the new system and to prevent voters from spoiling their precious votes.