Electoral Commission unpacks seat allocation for Provincial Legislatures
This advisory note seeks to unpack the seat allocation for provincial legislatures, using the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province as an example.
In the 2024 provincial elections, 32 political parties and one independent candidate contested KZN’s 80 provincial seats. Upon the finalisation of the capturing of all provincial votes, the Electoral Commission allocated the seats using the seat calculation formula, as prescribedin terms of Schedule 1A of the Electoral Act.
The number of seats per province is as follows:
Eastern Cape 72
Free State 30
Gauteng 80
KwaZulu-Natal 80
Limpopo 64
Mpumalanga 51
North West 38
Northern Cape 30
Western Cape 42
This is how the process unfolds:
- Calculate the quota = (Total valid votes divided by number of seats in the KZN provincial legislature + 1) + 1; disregard fractions.
- The quota based on the total valid votes of 3 508055, is thus 43310.
- Divide the number of valid votes for each contestant by the quota.
- Calculate first round allocation – see below – of the total number of seats of 80, only 74 seats are allocated in the first round allocation.
Note that the National Freedom Party (NFP) does not receive a seat in the first-round allocation. Only the African National Congress (ANC) (13), Democratic Alliance (10), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) (14), and Umkhonto weSizwe (MKP) (36) receive first-round seat allocations.
- 80 seats – 74 seats = 6 seats that still need to be allocated.
- These 6 seats will be allocated by ranking the highest remainders in a second-round seat allocation.
- The highest ranked remainders are as follows: EFF (ranked first), DA (second), ANC (third), MK (fourth), IFP (fifth) and NFP (sixth).
- In this second round, each of these top six ranked contestants received one seat, which is then added to the number of seats allocated in the first-round seat allocation to give the total number of allocated seats.
The NFP receives zero seats in the first-round allocation, but receives one seat in the second-round allocation based on the highest remainder. So a total of one (1) seat is allocated to NFP.
| KwaZulu-Natal | ||||||
|
Party |
Valid Votes | Votes/Quota | First Allocation | Remainder | Rank according to highest remainder | Final Allocation |
| ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS |
79 211 |
1.828930963 |
1 |
0.82893 |
1 |
2 |
| DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE |
468 515 |
10.81770954 |
10 |
0.81771 |
2 |
11 |
| AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS |
595 958 |
13.76028631 |
13 |
0.76029 |
3 |
14 |
| UMKHONTO WESIZWE |
1 590 813 |
36.73084738 |
36 |
0.73085 |
4 |
37 |
| INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY |
633 771 |
14.63336412 |
14 |
0.63336 |
5 |
15 |
| NATIONAL FREEDOM PARTY |
19 548 |
0.451350727 |
0 |
0.45135 |
6 |
1 |
| MOODLEY THANASAGREN RUBBANATHAN - 585066 |
12 323 |
0.284530132 |
0 |
0.28453 |
0 |
|
| AFRICAN CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY |
11 366 |
0.262433618 |
0 |
0.26243 |
0 |
|
| ACTIONSA |
9 569 |
0.220942046 |
0 |
0.22094 |
0 |
|
| ALLIED MOVEMENT FOR CHANGE |
8 007 |
0.184876472 |
0 |
0.18488 |
0 |
|
| PATRIOTIC ALLIANCE |
7 843 |
0.181089818 |
0 |
0.18109 |
0 |
|
| AFRICAN TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT |
6 477 |
0.149549758 |
0 |
0.14955 |
0 |
|
| DEMOCRATIC LIBERAL CONGRESS |
6 126 |
0.141445394 |
0 |
0.14145 |
0 |
|
| AL JAMA-AH |
6 012 |
0.138813207 |
0 |
0.13881 |
0 |
|
| VRYHEIDSFRONT PLUS |
5 638 |
0.130177788 |
0 |
0.13018 |
0 |
|
| BUILD ONE SOUTH AFRICA WITH MMUSI MAIMANE |
4 648 |
0.107319326 |
0 |
0.10732 |
0 |
|
| AFRICAN PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT |
4 117 |
0.095058878 |
0 |
0.09506 |
0 |
|
| RISE MZANSI |
3 898 |
0.090002309 |
0 |
0.09000 |
0 |
|
| PAN AFRICANIST CONGRESS OF AZANIA |
3 817 |
0.088132071 |
0 |
0.08813 |
0 |
|
| JUSTICE AND EMPLOYMENT PARTY |
3 626 |
0.083722004 |
0 |
0.08372 |
0 |
|
| CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE |
3 615 |
0.083468021 |
0 |
0.08347 |
0 |
|
| ABANTU BATHO CONGRESS |
3 214 |
0.07420919 |
0 |
0.07421 |
0 |
|
| PEOPLE'S FREEDOM PARTY |
3 162 |
0.073008543 |
0 |
0.07301 |
0 |
|
| SIZWE UMMAH NATION |
2 731 |
0.063057031 |
0 |
0.06306 |
0 |
|
| UNITED DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT |
2 565 |
0.059224198 |
0 |
0.05922 |
0 |
|
| AFRICAN INDEPENDENT CONGRESS |
2 527 |
0.058346802 |
0 |
0.05835 |
0 |
|
| AFRICAN MOVEMENT CONGRESS |
2 049 |
0.04731009 |
0 |
0.04731 |
0 |
|
| GOOD |
2 005 |
0.046294158 |
0 |
0.04629 |
0 |
|
| ARISE SOUTH AFRICA |
1 958 |
0.045208959 |
0 |
0.04521 |
0 |
|
| AFRICAN PEOPLE FIRST |
1 007 |
0.023250981 |
0 |
0.02325 |
0 |
|
| ECONOMIC LIBERATORS FORUM SOUTH AFRICA |
679 |
0.015677673 |
0 |
0.01568 |
0 |
|
| ALL CITIZENS PARTY |
631 |
0.014569384 |
0 |
0.01457 |
0 |
|
| AFRICA RESTORATION ALLIANCE |
629 |
0.014523205 |
0 |
0.01452 |
0 |
|
|
3 508 055 |
74 |
80 |
QUOTA
43310.32099
43310
SEATS
80
For media queries:Please contact Kate Bapela on 082 600 6386
For media interviews:Email requests tospokesperson@elections.org.za
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