The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said on Wednesday it would not reveal how many objections it had received to candidates nominated on the provisional election list published this week.

Nor would it confirm the names of individual politicians whose presence on the list had drawn protest, an IEC official said.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Freedom Front Plus had signaled that they lodged formal objections to the nomination of African National Congress (ANC) veteran Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, citing her criminal record for fraud.

The parties argued that the ex-wife of former president Nelson
Mandela, who was number five on the ANC's list for the National Assembly, was not eligible to become a MP.

The Constitution says that anybody sentenced to more than 12 months in jail without the option of a fine is not allowed to hold a seat in Parliament or the provincial legislatures until five years after the sentence has been "completed".

In July 2004, Madikizela-Mandela had an earlier sentence for fraud and theft reduced on appeal to three and a half years for fraud.

The sentence was suspended for five years.

The opposition parties argued that this means her sentence only lapses in July this year, disqualifying her from running for the National Assembly.

The ANC, however, had argued that the constitutional provision does not apply in her case because she never actually went to jail.

Legal experts warned that the ruling party's argument was flawed and her candidacy open to a court challenge.

The public had been given two days to object to a candidate's presence on the list, which was published in newspapers on Monday. The deadline for objections expires at 17:00 on Wednesday.

According to electoral regulations, the IEC had until Monday to make a decision on the status of the candidate and inform his or her party and the person who objected to the candidate of its decision.

"Anybody who is not happy about the decision has until March 26 to appeal to the Electoral Court. That is the deadline," the IEC official said.

The court has to make a ruling by March 31 and the IEC has to compile the final election list by April 3, just more than two weeks before the country goes to the polls on April 22.