At stake in this election:

• 400 seats in the National Assembly

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Thabo MBEKI
• Head of Government: President Thabo MBEKI
• 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 90 members are elected by regional legislatures to serve 5-year terms*. In the National Assembly 400 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.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: African National Congress
  • Leader: Thabo MBEKI
  • Seats won in this National Assembly election: 279
• Party: Democratic Alliance (DA)**
  • Leader: Anthony LEON
  • Seats won in this National Assembly election: 50
• Party: Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)
  • Leader: Mangosuthu BUTHELEZI
  • Seats won in this National Assembly election: 28
• Party: United Democratic Movement (UDM)
  • Leader: Bantu HOLOMISA
  • Seats won in this National Assembly election: 9
• Party: African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP)
  • Leader: Kenneth MESHOE
  • Seats won in this National Assembly election: 7
• Party: Freedom Front (FF)
  • Leader: Dr. Pieter MULDER
  • Seats won in this National Assembly election: 4
• Party: United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP)
  • Leader: Lucas Manyane MANGOPE
  • Seats won in this National Assembly election: 3
• Party: Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC)
  • Leader: Dr. T. PHEKU
  • Seats won in this National Assembly election: 1
• Party: Minority Front
  • Seats won in this National Assembly election: 2

** The Democratic Alliance was formed when the Democratic Party (DP) and the Federal Alliance (FA) merged in 2002.

Last Parliamentary election:

• Parliamentary elections were last held on June 2, 1999.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 46,641,103 (2004)
• Registered Voters: 20,674,926 (February 2004)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 23,726,298 (2004)

·         Is South Africa a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (29 January 1993)

·         Has South Africa ratified CEDAW: Yes (15 December 1995)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 131 (National Assembly); 18 (National Council) following the 2004 elections

·         Human Development Index Position: 116 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Low (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is South Africa a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has South Africa ratified CRPD: Yes (30 November 2007)

·         Population with a disability: 6,966,165 (est.)