Election in South Africa

Description of election in South Africa .......

Elections in South Africa are held for the National Assembly, provincial legislatures and municipal councils. Elections follow a five-year cycle, with national and provincial elections held simultaneously and municipal elections held two years later. 

The electoral system is based on party-list proportional representation, which means that parties are represented in proportion to their electoral support. For municipal councils there is a mixed-member system in which wards elect individual councillors alongside those named from party lists.

In elections of the National Assembly, every South African citizen who is 18 or older may vote, including (from the 2014 election) those resident outside South Africa. 

In elections of a provincial legislature or municipal council, only those resident within the province or municipality may vote. All elections are conducted by the Electoral Commission of South Africa, which is an independent body established by the Constitution.

The Union of South Africa was created on 31 May 1910 by the South Africa Act 1909, an act of the Imperial Parliament. The House of Assembly (the lower house of the newly created Parliament of South Africa) and the provincial councils were elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member electoral divisions. 

The franchise in these elections was initially the same as the franchise for the lower houses in the four colonies that had formed the Union, so there were different qualifications in different provinces.

    
Population (as of July 1, 2013)=46,801,098
Registered Voters (as of )   

Elections in our database=5
   
Average Turnout=81.11%
  
Election For     Date                Votes              Registered     Turn 

                                                                       Voters             Out           
National 
Assembly         2014-05-07      -                      -                     -
National
Assembly         2009-04-22     17,919,996     23,181,997     77.3%
President          2004-04-24      -                     20,674,926      -
National
Assembly          2004-04-14     15,863,554     20,674,926     76.73%
National
Assembly         1999-06-02     16,228,462      18,172,751     89.3%