To register, you must be a South African citizen, at least 16 years old (you can only vote at the age of 18), and have a green, bar-coded ID book, smartcard ID, or a valid Temporary Identity Certificate (TIC).
The election procedure
There are two types of voting systems:
Constituency elections are held in which voters in each local region (constituency) elect a single candidate to represent them in Parliament. The individual who receives the most votes in each constituency is elected to Parliament (MP). The party with the most MPs establishes the government. The individual MP, not the political party to which he or she belongs, holds the seat in this type of electoral system.
Voters in a big area vote for political parties in proportional representation elections. The members of a political party are chosen by the party. Each party is given a number of seats proportional to the number of votes it received in the election.
South Africa held constituency-based elections until to 1994, but since then, national and provincial elections have used proportional representation and party lists. Proportional representation and constituency-based elections are used in local government elections.
The Electoral Laws Amendment Bill of 2020 was adopted by Cabinet in August 2020, amending the Electoral Commission Act, 1996 (Act 51 of 1996), the Electoral Act, 1998 (Act 73 of 1998), and the Local Government Municipal Electoral Act, 2000. (Act 27 of 2000).
Elections to the legislature
Parliament is elected by a combination of proportional representation and party lists. Each political party provides a list of candidates in numbered order of preference before to the election. Parliamentary seats are distributed in accordance to the number of votes cast in the election. This means that a party that received 10% of the votes get 10% of the seats. If a party obtains 20 seats, the first 20 members on its party list are elected to the House of Commons.
