Many hurdles with current electoral system - BOSA's Maimane

JOHANNESBURG - Despite meeting the required threshold to contest the upcoming elections, Build One South Africa (BOSA) said the current electoral system has a lot of hurdles for new political parties to navigate.

BOSA was one of two applicants that recently had an urgent application to change the Electoral Amendment Act dismissed by the Constitutional Court. 

Despite that, on Thursday, BOSA submitted over 140,000 signatures of registered voters to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) offices in Centurion, making the party eligible to contest both nationally and provincially.  

To contest for seats in the National Assembly, new political parties are required to get signatures from 15% of total registered voters from each province.

This ranges from 10,000 to 14,000 depending on each province.

BOSA Leader Mmusi Maimane said this places an extra burden on new parties and benefits the old ones.

“There are parties that wouldn't get those signatures today, even if they are sitting in Parliament. If you want to be fair, then the ANC, DA, EFF, COPE must produce signatures.”

New parties have until close of business on Friday to submit their signatures to the IEC if they want to appear on the ballot paper.