South Africans head to the polls on May 8, for the sixth democratic elections.

There will be distinguishing features between and among political parties on the ballot paper.

This includes a re-ordering of the sequence of party identifiers on the ballot paper as follows:

1. Full party name

2. Party leader photograph

3. Abbreviation

4. Party logo

Over the years there has been confusion among voters as a result of some party identifiers that use similar colours, abbreviations and logos.

The IEC says a specific recommendation was that parties that may cause confusion to the voter ought to be separated on the ballot paper.

The IEC says the proposed solution was to retain the random draw for the first party on the ballot paper and thereafter follow the alphabetical order of parties as determined by the party at the top of the ballot.

Additionally, another random draw would be conducted to help separate parties which may cause confusion to the voter.

All parties represented at the National Party Liaison Committee endorsed and supported the proposals. In line with this, two random draws were conducted during the Code of Conduct signing ceremony held last week at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand.

The first draw was to separate parties which were consecutive in alphabetical order and which have certain similarities in their acronyms and logos namely:

· The African Independent Congress (AIC)

· The African National Congress (ANC)

· The African People’s Convention (APC)

In #SAElections2019 ballot draw on 20 March to separate parties which may confuse voters, AIC retained its alphabetical position on ballot, APC moved to the end of those parties starting with letter “A” on ballot, & ANC was placed in middle of list of parties starting with “A”. pic.twitter.com/YfGlG5g5Ec

— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) March 26, 2019

Traditionally we have used a random draw to determine the first party on the ballot paper with other parties then following in alphabetical order. The African Security Congress (ASC) won the draw held during the Code of Conduct signing on 20 March 2019 to top the ballot paper.

— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) March 26, 2019

During the #SAElections2019 Code of Conduct signing ceremony on 20 March 2019 another random draw was conducted to separate parties which may cause confusion to the voter – namely the AIC, ANC and APC. All parties represented at the NPLC endorsed and supported the proposals.

— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) March 26, 2019

eNCA