As the Electoral Amendment Bill stands now, it benefits the ANC the most.
That is the reason why organisations such as advocacy group My Vote Counts (MVC) called for more inputs to be made to the bill before it was taken to a vote and passed yesterday in the National Assembly.
Sheilan Clarke from MVC said the process to amend the bill was flawed, adding the participation process was not substantial enough.
In 2020 the Constitutional Court delivered a judgment compelling the country’s lawmakers to amend the Electoral Act and to allow independent candidates to contest the 2024 elections.
“It took parliament two years to amend it, and after the judgment was handed down, six months went by without any movement from government.
“A panel was appointed to look into the amendment and the process was also opened up for public participation.
“Two options were put to parliament and they went ahead with the minority view which simply took the current electoral system of proportional representation, which by design favours political parties,” she said.
Clarke said if independent candidates met the threshold for seats in Parliament, their excess votes, even if it guaranteed them more seats, fell away, discarded or given to political parties with the most seats — which meant they would go to the ANC.
“In Parliament, parties get seats by the number of votes. In other words, 200 000 votes equal four seats.
“If an independent candidate gets 200 000 votes, which equal four seats, they still get one seat and the rest of those are given to political parties,” said Clarke.
Earlier this month, Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane said his party was founded precisely so that independent candidates could circumvent the provision in the bill forcing independent candidates to forgo an excess of votes required to send them to Parliament.
Said Clarke: “In this form, the bill disregards the votes independent candidates get and it disregards the will of the voters, which is why this bill must be rejected.”
“This system is setting up independent candidates for failure. We can’t go to the 2024 elections with the current system,” Clarke said.
Asked how this could be remedied, she said very little could be done other than continuing with voter education on what the bill means and how it affects voters.
“There are MPs and MPLs who don’t know what this is about. We’ll continue with our advocacy and continue to engage government because we want a system that favours the voters that puts us at an advantage.”
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