The number of registered independent candidates for the municipal elections shot up overnight, with preliminary figures showing that 944 candidates were captured by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
This is compared to the 855 registered during the 2016 local government elections.
On Monday, a worrying trend emerged from preliminary figures ahead of the cut-off time for submission of candidates, showing an apparent decline in the number of independent candidates registered.
However, on Tuesday the IEC said the total number of independents captured stood at 944 ahead of the compliance verification process.
Kate Bapela, the IEC’s spokesperson, said: “The total number of municipal council seats being contested in this year's election is 10,285. There are 276 unique political parties that submitted candidates, of which two are contesting in all the 257 municipalities in the country.”
She said the preliminary figures indicate the total number of candidates stood at 59,272, including those captured through the online candidate nomination system as well as manually in the local office of the commission.
At least 74% of preliminary candidates were captured through the online system, whereas 26% were captured manually.
“This innovative ICT solution continues to offer operational efficiencies whilst at the same time giving political parties and independent candidates greater control over the capturing process,” said Bapela.
Bapela added that the chief electoral officer will notify political parties of any non-compliance that may have arisen by Friday and that contestants will have until August 30 to correct non-compliance.
“Furthermore, on August 31 2021 parties will be notified of candidates who may be appearing on multiple party lists. Parties may choose to remove such candidates and reorder lists by September 2 2021,” she said.
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