ELECTORAL LAW: ACTIONSA TO TABLE AMENDMENT BILL TACKLING POLITICAL OPINION POLLING

ELECTORAL LAW: ACTIONSA TO TABLE AMENDMENT BILL TACKLING POLITICAL OPINION POLLING

• 24 October 2025
• Electoral Law
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: According to parliamentary papers, the Bill was tabled in Parliament on 1 December 2025.

ActionSA’s Lerato Ngobeni intends tabling an Electoral Laws Amendment Bill in Parliament with the aim of prohibiting:

• the ‘official printing and publication of a political opinion poll conducted in connection with an election, seven days prior to that election’
• exit poll results publication on election day during the prescribed voting hours.

This is according to the procedurally required explanatory summary of the proposed new piece of legislation, which notes the absence of ‘any specific legal provisions governing the conduct, publication and dissemination of political opinion polling during or before elections’.

Against that backdrop, input is sought by 23 November 2025 on proposals that include:

• establishing an ‘polling ombud’ office as a ‘new oversight body within the Electoral Commission to ‘regulate political opinion polling and exit polling’, and
• providing for associated functions and powers, which would include:
  • registering polling entities
  • ensuring transparency in political polling activities, and
  • compliance enforcement.

Please click the link below for more information:

• explanatory summary

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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