IFES Election Guide - Country Profile: South Africa

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Parliamentary
April 2014
Presidential
2014

South Africa
Republic of South Africa
Region: Africa

Description of government structure:

Chief of State: President Jacob ZUMA
Head of Government: President Jacob ZUMA
Assembly: South Africa has a bicameral Parliament consisting of the National Council of Provinces with 90 seats and the National Assembly with 400 seats.

Description of electoral system:

The President is elected by the National Assembly to serve a 5-year term.
In the National Council of Provinces, 54 members are nominated by regional legislatures to serve 5-year terms and 36 members are nominated by regional legislatures to serve 5-year terms*. In the National Assembly, 200 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms and 200 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms.**

* There is an additional, non-voting 10-member delegation from the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).

** The PR tier is broken into a national list and regional lists. In the regional tier there are 9 multi-member districts, each corresponding to a province, with seats allocated in proportion to population. In both tiers, the electoral system is closed list proportional representation.