The ANC's presidential nomination process drew closer on Monday night as the party agreed to a constitutional amendment that would increase its National Executive Committee (NEC) to 86, including top officials, and that the number of women represented in its structures to 50 percent.

However, there is a discrepancy about whether the gender parity percentage should apply to the top six positions too.

Gauteng ANC chairman and finance MEC Paul Mashatile said: "Conference has not agreed that it should apply to the top six positions.

“The 50/50 issue had been agreed upon, but not whether it applies to all the structures."

He said this would be decided at the commissions that delegates were due to attend.

The amendment was passed to reach the party's objective of full  representation of women in decision-making structures.

To enable such participation, the party decided to implement a "programme of affirmative action".

The previous percentage for the representation of women was one third.

The previous NEC was 60 plus six top officials, and the increase was to ensure a greater spread of representatives.

Passing the constitutional amendments and the earlier acceptance of the credentials of the 3 900 delegates clarifies the conditions for the nominations process due to begin later on Monday evening.

It also tells the electoral commission how many names have to be put on to the ballot papers for the nominations for the NEC.

The electoral process has seen the conference delayed several times as these issues, and a change to manual ballot counting for the top six positions, to allay fears of vote rigging, are finalised.

The number of voting delegates from Gauteng, which overwhelmingly backed presidential challenger Jacob Zuma at branch level was dramatically slashed.

Certain branches were disqualified from sending delegates because they failed to meet before the conference, or met but did not achieve a quorum.

Mashatile said: "We were hoping that all the delegates from branches in good standing should be allowed to vote."

Some branches followed procedure, but others did not.

"And therefore we had to make a decision that we didn't want to bog conference down to fighting that these delegates be allowed to vote when in fact all other provinces are not getting the same privilege," he said.

"So as a result, we compromised," said Mashatile.

"Of course we are unhappy because it's not nice to lose 96 voting delegates, and most of them came here to amongst others also participate in voting. But they understood that you wouldn't want to have a matter that can collapse conference because you're insisting on something that everybody doesn't agree with."

Mashatile continued: "Whilst I may be saddened with the fact that my delegates, 96 of them, may not vote, I'm happy that the credentials have been now accepted. This will allow conference to proceed smoothly."

Asked if this could be a blow to Zuma he said: "Well, you don't know who those delegates would vote for, because remember the majority of delegates in Gauteng support Jacob Zuma, but there were others...supporting President Mbeki. So The 96 delegates that may not vote could come from any side."

In the Eastern Cape, 906 branch delegates were allocated seats at the conference by the party's NEC.

The Eastern Cape, with 153 164 paid-up members and the largest of  the ANC provinces, backed Mbeki.

The largest region in the province however, OR Tambo, declared its "unwavering support" for Zuma.

However 29 branches were disqualified from sending a delegate, resulting in 877 delegates being present.
  
The NEC had been allocated 63 delegates and 62 were present.

Former Justice Minister Penuell Maduna was absent.

All 68 of the ANC Youth League's allocated delegates were present, as were all 68 of the Women's League's.

KwaZulu-Natal, the province that returned the strongest support for Zuma, had its voting delegates decreased by two, from 608 to 606.

Three branches from the Free State were also disqualified after failing to meet a court deadline to hold new meetings by December 13.

While it had been agreed that votes for the top six ANC leadership posts would be counted manually, the method to be used for counting NEC members' votes had not been decided on yet.

While only Mbeki and Zuma had been formally nominated, for another nomination from the floor to stand, it would need the support of 25 percent of delegates.