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Have your say on the Electoral Amendment Bill

BACKGROUND:

The Constitutional Court in its judgment in New Nation Movement NPC & others v President of the Republic of South Africa & others [2020] ZACC 11, declared the Electoral Act, 1998 (Act No. 73 of 1998) (the ‘‘Act’’), unconstitutional to the extent that it requires that adult citizens may be elected to the National Assembly and provincial legislatures only through their membership of political parties. 1.2 The Constitutional Court directed Parliament to rectify the impugned sections of the Act within a period of 24 months from the date of the judgment, which 24 months is to be calculated from June 2020 to June 2022.

In response to the Constitutional Court judgement, the Minister of Home Affairs established a Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) to explore a variety of options and hear from a range of stakeholders. Cabinet considered and approved the submission of the Report of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Electoral System Reform to Parliament on 24 November 2021.

SUMMARY

The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Electoral Act, 1998, so as to insert certain definitions consequential to the expansion of this Act

  • to include independent candidates as contesters to elections in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures;
  • to provide that registered parties must submit a declaration confirming that all its candidates are registered to vote in the region or province where an election will take place;
  • to provide for the nomination of independent candidates to contest elections in the National Assembly or provincial legislatures;
  • to provide for the requirements and qualifications which must be met by persons who wish to be registered as independent candidates;
  • to provide the procedure to follow for a non-compliant nomination of an independent candidate;
  • to provide for the inspection of copies of lists of independent candidates and accompanying documents;
  • to provide for objections to independent candidates;
  • to provide for the inclusion of a list of independent candidates entitled to contest elections;
  • to provide that independent candidates are bound by the Electoral Code of Conduct;
  • to provide for the return of a deposit to independent candidates in certain circumstances;
  • to amend Schedule 1; to substitute Schedule 1A; and
  • to provide for matters connected therewith.

Memorandum, clause by clause summary

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Electoral Amendment Bill [B1-2022]

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Cape Independence Advocacy Group

Dear Speaker,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) and the seventy thousand South Africans who actively follow our work.

We wish to comment on the ‘Electoral Commissions Amendment Act, 2021’, which is proposed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and was published in the Government Gazette on 21 June 2021.

Given our mandate, our comments are made in the context of the Western Cape, although we appreciate and respect that the constitutional rights enacted through this bill will rightfully apply to all provinces.

This bill is essential to restoring some degree of functional democracy to the voters of the Western Cape and we therefore unreservedly and wholeheartedly endorse it.

Through their voting behaviour, Western Cape voters have made it abundantly clear that they do not endorse many of the policy and ideological positions of the South African national government, but are left utterly powerless to resist them because the voters in other South African provinces, who greatly outnumber them, hold starkly different ideological and political opinions.

In terms of seeing their democratic will enacted, for the majority of Western Cape voters, the democratic era has not offered much of an improvement over the apartheid era. It is a statistical fact that, since 1994, the majority of Western Cape voters have never been governed by the political party they voted for, and they have no foreseeable prospect of ever being governed by the party they vote for. As such, they cannot be said to have functional democracy.

One of the few glimmers of democratic hope Western Cape voters do have, is the provision of Clause 127(2)(f) of the national constitution, and 37(2)(f) of the Western Cape constitution, which allows them, at the discretion of the premier who they elected, to have their voices heard on matters which are important to them, without being drowned out by a national majority who fundamentally hold different views.

To deny Western Cape voters this constitutional right would be a very serious infringement of their political rights and freedoms, and would be a clear indication that parliament and the national government are not interested in the constitutional rights and democratic wishes of Western Cape voters.

We therefore call upon parliament to pass this bill at the earliest opportunity, and without objection.

Yours Faithfully

Phil Craig
(On behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group)