The IEC says it's ready to print ballot papers for the elections after finalising the party candidate lists. The commission announced that 70 political parties are taking part in the general elections on May 29, with 31 of them contesting nationally.

Chief Electoral Officer, Sy Mamabolo, said with the finalisation of the list of candidates contesting seats in the 2024 National and Provincial Elections (NPE2024), IEC can now go ahead with the printing of ballot papers for the elections. "The 27.79 million registered voters will receive three ballot papers to elect candidates to represent them in the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures," Mamabolo said. Briefing the media, Mamabolo said the use of the three ballots follows the amendment of the Electoral Act, which was signed into law in April 2023. This amendment revised the electoral system to allow independent candidates to contest in the regional (province-to-national) tier of the National Assembly and the Provincial Legislatures. "Although the phenomenon of three ballots will be familiar to voters in various local municipalities, it will be new to voters in metropolitan areas and for the first time in general elections for national and provinces," he added.

He explained that there are a total of 400 contested seats in the National Assembly. "The proportional representation compensatory 200 seats will be contested by political parties only and there is a dedicated ballot paper for this tier of the National Assembly. The remaining regional or province-to-national 200 seats will be contested by independent candidates and political parties. This tier of the National Assembly will also have a dedicated ballot paper," he said. He said this means that National Assembly elections will be based on two ballot papers, a national ballot and the newly introduced regional or province-to-national ballot. Voters may elect a preferred party on the national ballot and elect another preferred party or independent on the regional ballot. However, in respect of provincial elections, he said, voters will elect a preferred party or independent candidate on a single provincial ballot. On Monday, IEC urged those who have registered to vote but cannot vote at their voting stations to apply for special votes to take place two days before the official election day.