The Electoral Commission (IEC) has released the provisional list of political parties that will be taking part in the municipal elections on 1 March.
According to the election timetable, political parties and ward candidates wishing to participate in the elections had until 17:00 on Friday to submit party lists and candidate nominations and to pay the required deposits.
Some 98 parties will contest the elections, but the proportional representation ballot will have the names of only those parties that stand in a specific municipality.
The main parties in the Overstrand are the ANC, DA and ACDP. The final list will be announced on Monday.
The Hermanus Times will carry a full list of Overstrand candidates and parties in next week's issue.
More than 5 000 candidates have registered in the Western Cape, compared to 3 000 in the last municipal elections in 2000.
· Only voters whose names appear on the voters' roll will be eligible to vote.
· Read more at www.elections.org.za.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.