The secret ballot and democracy

WHEN Hillary Clinton won nearly three million more votes than Donald Trump but came short in the number of Electoral College votes in last year’s US presidential election, many dumbfounded and devastated citizens of one of the world’s oldest and biggest democracies cried foul.

The seasonal calls for the electoral rules to be adjusted rose to probably their highest pitch. Some urged the college selectors to break the rules and “break faith” with their states or to vote with their conscience to stop Trump at his last remaining hurdle in his astounding race to the White House.

Legally, there was not much to stop the selectors voting against the wishes of the ordinary citizens in that election. Not much other than a small fine or minor criminal charge in some states. But they all knew they’d be undermining the democratic process in the name of the short-term goal of stopping Trump.

Since 1787, selectors have largely voted with discipline and in accordance with the wishes of the electorate, even when they did not like or agree with the president-elect or the vice-president-elect in question. But more than ever before, many US citizens last year had plenty of valid, cogent and irreproachable reasons not to allow Trump to be president.

Thankfully, for democracy’s sake and the stability of the world’s biggest economy and that of the entire globe, not enough of the selectors broke faith with their constituencies in the states. Trump and, importantly, democracy prevailed.

Some 11 million voters cast their ballots during the 2014 general elections with President Jacob Zuma’s face and the colours of the ANC on the ballot paper slot against which they put their crosses. They gave the ANC, with Zuma at the helm, the mandate to form the current government. Therefore, it would be undermining democracy for members of Parliament, as justified as their reasons may be, to vote with their conscience. It would be tantamount to breaking the rules of the democratic game for any MP to vote as they pleased, against the wishes of their party that obtained their mandate from common voters.

The ANC’S chief whip was correct in warning that what was going on in the country should not blind our elected representatives to the “disastrous consequences” that may follow their deviation from their party mandate. Such action may indeed take our young democracy into uncharted and treacherous waters.

Our problems require tireless action from all citizens to build the South Africa we want.