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About the DA ť Regulations For The Nomination Of Candidates

	REGULATIONS FOR THE NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES
1.	Application and Amendment
1.1.	These regulations are drawn up in terms of clause 2.2 of the Federal Constitution. The selection of all Party candidates for public representative office must take place in terms of these regulations.
1.2	These regulations supersede all other nomination regulations, and come into operation when they are approved by the Federal Council.
1.3	Except where the regulations empower the Federal Executive or the Federal Candidates Election Committee to vary or adapt their provisions, these regulations can only be amended by the Federal Council.
2.	Definitions
2.1	2.1 In these Regulations the following words have the following meaning:
	"approved aspirant candidate" means an aspirant candidate whom an electoral college, established in terms of section 5, has elected to a pool;
	"aspirant candidate" means a person who has applied to be a candidate of the Party, but who has not yet appeared before the relevant electoral college;
	"candidate" means a person selected to stand for the Party in a ward, and/or a person included on the official ranked list referred to in section 10.2 below;
	"civil action" means any civil judgment that has been awarded against a candidate or a juristic person controlled by a candidate, and includes a summons to appear in court to defend an action based on an unpaid debt brought by a creditor against a candidate or a juristic person controlled by a candidate.
	"constituency" means that area or areas allocated to an MP or MPL by the province or region concerned;
	"cost of the campaign" means the cost of the election campaign, as determined by the Chief Executive Officer or a person designated by him or her, to any particular province or municipal area divided by the number of elected candidates;
	"designated date" means a date determined in terms of section 13.2 below;
	"designated party official" means an official named in terms of sections 12.1 or 13.1 below;
	"electoral college" means an electoral college elected in terms of section 5, and relevant electoral college means that electoral college that has been elected to select ward candidates or pools of approved aspirant candidates or both, in terms of a decision of the relevant executive;
	"extended electoral college" means an electoral college referred to in section 9.2 below;
	"partner" means a person who is in a permanent relationship with another person which involves inter alia cohabitation and mutual financial or emotional support;
	"professional party staff members" means any persons who have employment contracts with the Party and who are employed by the Party but who are paid by any organ of state, but does not include any person who is paid a gratuity for services rendered to the Party;
	"relevant executive" means the Federal Executive, in the case of candidates for the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces, the provincial executive, in the case of candidates for the respective provincial legislatures, and the regional or other sub-provincial executive (if these exist) that corresponds to a municipality, in the case of candidates for the lists for that municipality;
	"seat target total" means the number of seats in a province or municipality which the Chief Executive Officer, or a person designated by him or her, certifies is capable of being won by the Party;
	"selection panel"means a panel of persons, referred to in section 8.1, nominated by a province or region and approved by the Federal Executive, who will provisionally rank approved aspirant candidates for the regional list for the National Assembly, the provincial list for the provincial legislature and/or the lists for the various municipalities;
	"single transferable voting system" means the Hunt-Le Roux STV system approved by the Federal Council;
	"winnable province or municipality" means a province or municipality which the Chief Executive Officer, or a person delegated by him or her, certifies is capable of being won by the Party.
2.2	Terms that are used in these Regulations, and which have been defined in the Federal Constitution, shall have the same defined meanings as in the Federal Constitution.
3.	The Federal Candidates' Election Committee
3.1	There shall be a Federal Candidates Election Committee (FCEC).
3.2	The FCEC will consist of
	The Chairperson of the Federal Council; The Chairperson of the Federal Legal Commission; The principal representative of the Party on the National PLC of the IEC; The Chief Executive Officer; One representative from each province designated by the respective Provincial Executive; A representative of the Association of Democratic Alliance Councillors (ADAC).
3.3	The FCEC must
	Take any steps to facilitate the operation of these regulations; Advise the Federal Executive, any other structure of the Party or any selection panel on any aspect of the candidate selection process; Approve the composition and procedures of provincial, regional or other sub-provincial electoral colleges to ensure that they comply with these regulations; Determine the composition and procedures of any electoral college in the event that a provincial council or the relevant executive fails to submit these; Determine, in consultation with the relevant executive, designated dates for the operation of these regulations.
3.4	The FCEC will be convened and chaired by the Chairperson of the Federal Council, and must determine its own procedures.
3.5	A Provincial Executive may apply to the FCEC to establish a body to perform such functions on a provincial basis as the FCEC agrees to delegate. The composition, powers and functions of this body must be agreed to by the FCEC.
4.	Nomination of Aspirant Candidates
4.1	Once the designated dates referred to in section 13.2 below are determined, the relevant executive must advise all party formations, including branch committees, of those dates and invite nominations. The party formations must also be informed when and where nomination forms can be obtained.
4.2.1	An aspirant candidate
	must be a member of the Party for a minimum of one year: provided that the FCEC may on application and with good cause, waive this requirement in individual cases, or, in exceptional cases, for groups of aspirant candidates and further provided that this disqualification shall not apply to members of the Party who could not by law join earlier; and must be nominated by a minimum of two and a maximum of ten members of the Party who are members in the province or municipality for which the aspirant candidate is nominated.
4.2.2	The relevant executive must determine the number of members required to nominate an aspirant candidate.
4.3	An aspirant candidate may, subject to the Constitution of South Africa and any relevant legislation, be nominated both for one or more wards, for one or more lists, and/or for the National Council of Provinces.
4.4	All nominations must be made on forms attached as Appendix A, and must contain all the information required in the forms. Failure to complete the forms in full may result in the application being rejected. Submitting false or inaccurate information on the forms will result in the application being rejected, and may result in disciplinary action against the aspirant candidate.
4.5	Nomination forms must be available at all offices of the Party, and must be able to be downloaded from the Party website.
5.	Election of Electoral Colleges
5.1	One or more Electoral Colleges must be established in each province. A provincial electoral college will elect the pool for the National Assembly and for the provincial legislature for that province, and will interview candidates nominated for election to the National Council of Provinces.
5.2	Where a region or other sub-provincial structure corresponds with a municipality, the candidates for the pools for that municipality must be selected by an electoral college the composition and procedures of which will, subject to sections 5.4 to 5.12 be determined by the relevant executive. Where no such structure exists, the same electoral college, including committees of it, will select all the candidates for pools in municipalities in that province.
5.3.1	Electoral colleges that select ward candidates must be structured in such a way that representatives from the lowest applicable structure have appropriate representation on such colleges when the selection of candidates from the area served by that structure are selected.
5.3.2	Where no nominations have been received in a ward, or where the person or persons nominated are, in the opinion of the relevant executive, unsatisfactory, the relevant executive, or a person authorised by it, will be empowered to approach suitable persons to make themselves available as candidates in that ward.
5.3.3	Where only one person has been nominated for a ward, the electoral college may declare that person the candidate for that ward.
5.4	An Electoral College must be structured in such a way that persons who are not public representatives constitute at least half of the membership, and that both votes cast in the last election of a national nature and membership numbers to be taken into account in their constitution.
5.5	Any Electoral College, as well as, where appropriate, any office-bearer or committee, must be elected according to the single transferable voting system. An election of an electoral college must occur in batches to ensure that there is diversity. Where it is impossible or impractical to use this system, the relevant executive may apply to the FCEC to use the voting system in Annexure A of the Federal Constitution.
5.6	The Provincial Chairperson or Regional Chairperson, or a person to whom this function has been delegated, must convene the first meeting of the Electoral College(s). This meeting must elect:
	the Chairperson and Deputy-Chairperson of the Electoral College(s); and any other committee/s that may be deemed necessary. An Electoral College may, following the procedure outlined in section 5.5, elect a committee for the purpose of screening aspirant candidates.
5.7	Should an Electoral College elect any other Committees, such Committees must elect a Chairperson and Deputy-Chairperson from within their own ranks.
5.8	Whenever members of any Electoral College are elected, the balance of the ranked list of Electoral College nominees will be considered the ranked list of alternate members of that Electoral College.
5.9	The following persons shall not be eligible as members of any Electoral College or committee of such a college: Professional party staff members; a parent, parent-in-law, son or daughter, son-in-law or daughter-in-law, child, sibling, uncle or aunt, or partner of an aspirant candidate or approved aspirant candidate; persons who were not members of the Party for at least a year prior to the first meeting of the electoral college in question: provided that the FCEC may on application from the relevant executive and with good cause, waive this requirement in individual cases; aspirant candidates and approved aspirant candidates whose candidature will be determined by that electoral college(s); and (v) more than two persons that are family members as specified in sub-section (ii) above.
5.10	One half of the members of any Electoral College or any committee of such a college shall constitute a quorum.
5.11	Every member and alternate of an Electoral College must receive appropriate training.
5.12	Every province/region/district/constituency must lodge the composition and procedures of its electoral college(s) with the FCEC for its approval. Such lodging and approval must be concluded such that sufficient time is available for the FCEC to evaluate such composition and procedures, and for the required processes of the election of electoral colleges to occur.
6.	Electing Candidates for Wards and PR Pool(s)
6.1	Every aspirant candidate seeking election to the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces, a Provincial Legislature or a Municipality, as the case may be, must be given an equal opportunity to address the electoral college, and members of the electoral college may put questions to an aspirant candidate.
6.2	After completing the interview with each aspirant candidate, the Electoral College must proceed to discuss the competing merits of each such candidate.
6.3	Electoral colleges selecting candidates for wards must interview all the aspirant candidates that have been validly nominated for that ward and must select a single candidate to represent the Party in that ward following the procedure determined in Annexure A to the Federal Constitution.
6.4	The relevant Electoral College must interview all the aspirant candidates that have been validly nominated for any list or for the National Council of Provinces and must elect a pool of approved aspirant candidates equal to twice the seat target total: provided that the pool may not be less than 10 and not more than the total number of candidates that a province is entitled to elect to the National Assembly or the provincial legislature, or total number of candidates on the list that a municipality is entitled to elect to any council, as the case may be. The size of the pool may be varied by the FCEC on application by the relevant executive and with good cause.
6.5	All pools will be elected in batches, which can be no larger than one-half of the size of the pool. The number of aspirant candidates for which a member of an electoral college may vote when electing a batch shall be 50% of the batch size, rounded up where necessary. The batch will consist of those aspirant candidates with the highest number of votes, in descending order, until the correct number of candidates has been elected. If there is an equality of votes for the last position, the electoral college will vote to determine which of the candidates is elected to the batch. If there is still an equality of votes, the position will be decided by lot.
6.6	A member of an electoral college may not cast a vote for an election of a ward candidate or a pool unless he or she has attended the interviews of all aspirant candidates for that ward, or for the pool, as the case may be: provided that the FCEC may on application from the relevant executive and with good cause, waive this requirement in individual cases.
6.7	The Chairperson of the Electoral College will notify the relevant executive of the names of the approved aspirant candidates that have been elected as ward candidates, or to the pool, and will send a copy of this notification to the FCEC. The names of the approved aspirant candidates elected to the pool will be unranked and in alphabetical order.
7.	Evaluation of Approved Aspirant Candidates
7.1	The Party will evaluate every approved aspirant candidate in the manner provided in these regulations, and will submit the evaluation to the panel considering that candidates selection in adequate time prior to the first sitting of the panel.
7.2	The evaluation will consist of a written evaluation by the chairperson of the relevant executive or the constituency head or his or her nominee of the sustained contribution made by that approved aspirant candidate to the organisation, growth and/or development of the Party. a written evaluation by the chairperson of the relevant executive or a person or persons designated by him or her, of the contribution made by that approved aspirant candidate to his or her community or the wider society, and/or the leadership role that candidate occupies in the community or society. an assessment of any relevant training undertaken by the candidate. in the case of aspirant candidates who are or were public representatives, a written evaluation of the sustained contribution made by that member in his or her role as a member of the relevant legislature or council, provided: in the case of a member or former member of Parliament, by the Leader and by the Chief Whip of the Party in the National Assembly or National Council of Provinces as the case may be; in the case of a member or former member of a Provincial Legislature, Provincial Caucus Leader and Chief Whip of the Party in that legislature; in the case of a Councillor or former councillor, by the Leader and Whip of the Party in that Council: Provided that if that member is or was the only public representative of the Party or one of two in Parliament, a Legislature or a Council, or if that member is the Leader or the Whip of the Party in a Council, the written evaluation will be done by the Leader, Provincial Leader, or Regional Chairperson or constituency MP or MPL or constituency chairperson, as the case may be. In addition to 7.2 (iv) above, for aspirant candidates who are or were public representatives, performance assessments for each year of the immediately prior term of office, in accordance with any assessment framework that may be laid down by the Federal Council.
7.3	Such an evaluation must, to the greatest extent possible, be done on the basis of objective criteria and in terms of a standard system of scoring, which will be developed by the Federal Executive.
7.4	Each approved aspirant candidate must receive a copy of the written evaluations referred to in section 7.2 and, if he or she is satisfied with the content thereof, must sign the report(s) to signify his or her acceptance of it or them. If the approved aspirant candidate is not satisfied with any of the reports, he or she may draft a response to the report/s and address it to the chairperson of the relevant selection panel.
7.5	The information contained, and the opinions expressed, in an evaluation are confidential, and may only be made available to the members of the selection panel, the relevant approved aspirant candidate and the designated Party official who administers the evaluations, who will be required to sign an undertaking to this effect.
8.	Appointment and Role of Selection Panels
8.1	Each relevant executive must nominate and submit the names of fit and proper persons who are willing and available to serve on selection panels to the Federal Executive for approval. When nominating members of the selection panel, an executive will try to arrive at consensus. If this proves impossible, the members of the selection panel will be elected according to the single transferable voting system. The names of the selection panel must be accompanied by curricula vitae and a brief motivation as to the suitability of the persons.
8.2	The following persons may not be eligible to be members of any selection panel: professional party staff members; a parent, parent-in-law, son or daughter, son-in-law or daughter-in-law, child, sibling, uncle or aunt, or partner of an aspirant candidate or approved aspirant candidate; a member of an electoral college; aspirant candidates or approved aspirant candidates in that province or municipality; persons who have a demonstrable personal interest in the outcome of the selection process.
8.3	Every selection panel must consist of between three and five members who must be suitably diverse. At least one of its members must have had previous experience of public representative office.
8.4	The selection panel will elect its own chairperson and other office-bearers, and will decide on its own procedures, which must not be inconsistent with these regulations. The Party will resource the panel to enable it to carry out its functions.
8.5	The selection panel will interview each approved aspirant candidate in the pool for any list, and will consider the evaluation of that candidate carried out in accordance with section 7.2.
8.6	Prior to deliberating on the merits of the candidates and to the provisional ranking in terms of section 8.7, the selection panel may be addressed by the national leader, the provincial leader and/or the premiership or mayoral candidate, as the case may be. Such leader(s) or candidate may, on this occasion, specify his, her or their perspectives on the requirements of the relevant caucus as far as racial and gender diversification, expertise and geographic spread is concerned.
8.7	Once all the approved aspirant candidates in the pool have been interviewed, the selection panel will rank the candidates, and will submit the ranked list to the relevant executive and, in order to ensure due process, to the FCEC. In ranking approved aspirant candidates, the members of the selection panel will attempt to arrive at consensus, but will vote if this is not possible.
	(Section 9 has not yet been approved by the Federal Council)
9.	Selection of Premier and Mayoral Candidates
9.1	Persons wishing to stand for election as the premier or mayoral candidate must be nominated by at least two members of the Party who are registered voters in that province or municipality. A premier or mayoral candidate must be an approved aspirant candidate.
9.2	A premier or mayoral candidate will be elected by an extended electoral college consisting of: The electoral college responsible for electing the pool in that province or municipality, as the case may be; and The members of the selection panel for that province or municipality.
9.3	The nominated premier or mayoral candidate of a winnable province or municipality must be approved by the Federal Executive. In the event that the Federal Executive disapproves of a premier or mayoral candidate, this decision can be overturned by a two-thirds' majority of the persons specified in section 9.2.
9.4	The premier or mayoral candidate of a province or municipality will be entitled to the first position on the list for that province or municipality.
10.	Final Ranking of Lists
10.1	The relevant executive will review the list(s) submitted by the selection panel. It may, by a two-thirds majority, amend the lists by promoting to a higher position candidates placed in lower positions; and/or introducing aspirant candidates from the relevant province that were not part of the pool elected by the relevant electoral college provided that such persons promoted or introduced may not amount to more than 10% of the pool in total or one candidate, whichever is the greater, in order to promote diversity of the lists, to correct gender, racial and skills imbalances, or to insert candidates who may have been prejudiced by sectarian interests during the selection process.
10.2	The list, as ranked by the selection panel and reviewed by the relevant executive, will be submitted to the electoral college, which can provide reasons in what way the list is unacceptable, and may make such other comments as it deems fit. The relevant executive must consider the reasons and comments provided by the electoral college and may make further changes to the list, subject to the limitation referred to in section 10.1 or it may reject these comments and reasons. Its decision, after considering the reasons and comments of the electoral college, and subject to section 12.3 below, is final.
10.3	No member of any executive may vote or participate in the proceedings of that executive when it reviews a list unless his or her candidature, or the candidature of any persons referred to in section 5.9(ii), is not at issue or until it has been finalised.
11.	Election of Members of the National Council of Provinces
11.1	As soon as practical after the results of the general election have been certified, the chairperson of each provincial electoral college will convene a meeting of the electoral college, to elect from amongst the approved aspirant candidates, a pool of candidates for the NCOP equal to twice the number of delegates the Party is entitled to designate to the NCOP from that province.
11.2	The number of aspirant candidates for which a member of an electoral college may vote when electing a pool shall be 50% of the pool size. The pool will consist of those aspirant candidates, with the highest number of votes, in descending order, until the correct number of candidates has been elected. If there is an equality of votes for the last position, the electoral college will vote to determine which of the candidates is elected to the pool.
11.3	The Chairperson of the electoral college will notify the relevant executive of the names of the approved aspirant candidates elected to the pool.
11.4	The Party will evaluate every aspirant candidate who has not already been evaluated in the manner prescribed in section 7.2 and will submit the evaluation to the selection panel, which will follow substantially the same procedure outlined in sections 6.5, 8.5, 8.6, and 8.7, to provisionally rank the pool.
11.5	The Federal Executive will consider the approved aspirant candidates from all the provinces and will follow substantially the same procedure outlined in sections 10.1 and 10.2 in determining which candidates will represent the Party from each province in the NCOP.
12.	Appeals and Oversight
12.1	The FCEC may designate an official or officials who may monitor the (a) nomination; (b) selection and (c) ranking procedure in any province and certify that the procedures comply with the Federal Constitution and these Regulations.
12.2	Any aspirant candidate or approved aspirant candidate or candidate has the right, in terms of Clause 9.3.1 of the Federal Constitution, to appeal within a reasonable period to the Federal Legal Commission on the grounds that the proper procedure was not followed or the nomination was invalid for any other reason, including that a relationship, prohibited in terms of section 5.9 or 8.2 exists between an aspirant candidate and a member of an electoral college or a selection panel. The right to appeal in terms of this paragraph must be drawn to the attention of all aspirant candidates on their nomination forms.
12.3	Any aspirant candidate or approved aspirant candidate has a right to appeal to the Federal Executive on the grounds that his or her candidature was not properly considered by the electoral college, the selection panel or the relevant executive, as the case may be. The Federal Executive will establish a sub-committee to consider such appeals. The decision of the sub-committee on such appeals is final.
13.	General Provisions
13.1	The relevant executive must: designate an official/s who shall receive nominations and other documentation on behalf of an electoral college or electoral colleges and its committee(s); provide secretarial services to the electoral college(s), the selection panel(s) and its committee(s); conduct such probity checks on aspirant candidates as may be determined by the FCEC.
13.2	All dates relevant to the procedures set out in these Regulations shall be determined by the relevant executive in consultation with the FCEC.
13.3	The Federal Executive is responsible for the development and presentation of an appropriate orientation and training programme which will ensure that electable candidates are familiar with (a) the duties and responsibilities of public representatives and (b) the vision, principles, structure, policy and programme of action of the Party. Orientation and training must be available to all approved aspirant candidates. the development of a standard job description for a public representative against which the suitability of approved aspirant candidates can be measured by those responsible for evaluating them the development of a system of evaluation of approved aspirant candidates, including a system of scoring and moderating this evaluation. Such a system may distinguish between existing public representatives, and persons who have never been public representatives the compilation and distribution of any other standardised procedures, criteria or other relevant documentation required by these regulations.
13.4	The Federal Executive, acting on the advice of the FCEC, shall have the right to waive any of the provisions of these Regulations if it has become impractical to apply them in one or more municipalities, regions or provinces.
13.5	The FCEC may, on the advice of the relevant executive remove a candidate from a list or as a ward candidate if such candidate has failed to carry out reasonable duties or to fulfil reasonable obligations in connection with the campaign: provided that the candidate in question must be afforded the opportunity to make representations to the FCEC prior to it making a decision.
13.6	These regulations apply, with the necessary changes, to all elections of candidates to fill casual vacancies that may occur in the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces, the provincial legislatures or to any municipality, or of ward candidates, as the case may be.
13.7	If a vacancy in the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces, a provincial legislature or a municipal list seat arises within one year after an election, the vacancy is filled by the candidate at the top of that list: Provided that Provincial Regulations may provide for an election process to be followed to fill such vacancy in a municipal list seat.
13.8	If a vacancy in the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces, a provincial legislature or a municipal list seat arises one year or more after an election, the selection process set out herein is followed in order to fill that vacancy: Provided that the pool selected by the Electoral College for presentation to the Selection Panel, shall be in the case of one or two vacancies, all the aspirant candidates to a maximum of five, and in the case of three or more vacancies, all the aspirant candidates to a maximum of double the number of vacancies.
13.9	Provincial Regulations may provide for an alternative system in terms of which a list for the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces, the provincial legislature and for municipal list are compiled annually in terms of the process set out herein in which event the vacancy is filled from the list existing at that time.
13.10	When a casual vacancy in a ward arises, it is filled in accordance with the process set out in these Regulations: Provided that Provincial Regulations may prescribe an alternative process.
	(Amended and approved by the Federal Council on 30 July 2006 and on 11 February 2007 and 27 October 2007 )
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