FOCUS ON EBC CIVIC AND VOTER EDUCATION EXERCISE MPs hot topic
Make Nkambule opined that there was a need for the electorate to be educated at length about the Constitution in order for them to know what was expected of them.
Meanwhile, Chief Zembe Dvuba of Mpolonjeni encouraged his subjects to register and further participate in the elections in numbers. He encouraged his subjects to vote, perhaps Motshane MP might come from their umphakatsi this time around.
In response to the submissions of the residents, EBC’s Masiko Dlamini said they were taking the recommendations into consideration.
Legislation
On the power to recall underperforming MPs, Dlamini said there was a need for a piece of legislation to that effect.
He said as EBC, they were told about it and as such the commission would have to look for ways of implementing such. He said there was once an attempt to take the matter to Parliament, even though it was rejected.
It is worth noting that recently, MPs argued that coming up with a law that provided for the recall of underperforming legislators was unfeasible and unsound. They questioned what would happen to the appointed parliamentarians as well as how their performance would be assessed.
According to the provisions of the Constitution, 59 MPs are elected while 10 MPs and 20 senators are appointed by the head of State.
The legislators were responding to a statement from the EBC Chairperson, Mhlabuhlangene Dlamini, who said there was a need for the country’s political system to allow voters the power to recall their underperforming representatives from Parliament.
The EBC chairperson noted that it was a weakness that under the country’s election system, there was no available controlled and balanced mechanism by which voters were able to hold their elected politicians accountable.
The legislators were of the view that such legislation would be unfair to elected MPs, while favouring appointed MPs as the electorate would have no power to recall them. They argued that service delivery was a collective effort, while insisting that local government should also be held accountable and not just legislators.