People ‘should definitely be worried’ about Electoral Amendment Bill – analysts

Voters are not going to be able to choose the president, or even someone to represent their local interests, because parliament has shot down a Bill which might have provided for “ground-breaking change in the electoral system”.

One of the original drafters of the Electoral Amendment Bill, Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane, said the intention was to have direct elections via a constituency model, rather than the “party list” proportional representation system which had been in operation since 1994 and through which parliamentary seats are allocated in proportion to the total number of votes won.

Maimane said his organisation wanted a constituency-based model, “which would allow direct election from the public and ultimately allow an open election so people would vote for who they wanted”.

‘President must be accountable to the people’

“If they don’t change it, they undermine people’s democratic rights,” he said. “I always think it’s important for democracy to have a direct election of the president and [now] you can’t elect the president – and if you can’t elect the president, it means that only 4 000 delegates are voting [at the] ANC conference for the president while the president must be accountable to the people,” Maimane said.

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“[Right now], the president is [only] accountable to the party.”

The Bill which was adopted Thursday in the National Assembly, with 232 MPs in favour, 98 against and three abstentions, has undermined the people’s right to govern, say experts, opposition parties and civic society.

Youth Lab’s election analyst Pearl Pillay said people “should definitely be worried about this Bill [which] does a massive disservice to individual candidates”.

“If the aim of this Bill was to allow for independent candidates to contest elections fairly, it does the exact opposite. It consolidates political power, once again, in the hands of political parties under the guise of making it inclusive of independent candidates.”

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said the adoption of the Bill was concerning as it showed a “continuation of the status quo”.

He said this meant there would not only never be a deep representation of citizens, but the public would also never have access to parliament. However, following a crescendo of calls from civic groups to reject the Bill and safeguard “SA’s democracy from harm”, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said much of the criticism on the Bill was based on a misunderstanding of a Constitutional Court (ConCourt) judgment.

“It’s not correct the court ordered a change broader than simply allowing independent candidates,” he said.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), Inkatha Freedom Party, Freedom Front Plus and Congress of the People voted against it, with DA MP Angel Khanyile questioning whether the public hearings and consultations held in respect of the Bill were fair, “or was [it] just another [box ticking] exercise?”

She said: “We have serious concerns about this Bill, but the ANC will use its majority to push this through. We don’t support this.”

Civil society ‘stooges and puppets of the establishment’

The Economic Freedom Fighters previously objected to the amendments; however, before the vote, its deputy president Floyd Shivambu said they would vote in support of the Bill.

“We are not going to be strongarmed by so-called civil society, most of which are stooges and puppets of the establishment.”

In a statement, the ANC parliamentary caucus said the Bill would still go to the National Council of Provinces.

“The ConCourt made no ruling on the direct election of the president or members of the executive,” office of the chief whip’s Pemmy Majodina said.

“[It] also did not direct parliament on an electoral system to be enacted; instead, it left a choice to parliament, as long as the enacted system would be constitutional.”

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– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za