Push for voting change
Cope’s Lekota to introduce bill aimed at ensuring independents can stand in elections
COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota has given Parliament notice of his intention to introduce a private member’s bill aimed at ensuring the participation of independent candidates in the provincial and national elections.
This comes as the Department of Home Affairs has yet to receive approval from the Cabinet to introduce a similar bill after the Constitutional Court declared the Electoral Act unconstitutional. The court found that the existing laws deprive ordinary citizens of their right to contest elections independently.
Now, Parliament has until June 2022 to amend the Electoral Act, just two years ahead of the next national and provincial elections.
In a notice published on Friday,
Lekota said he intended to introduce the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill in Parliament during the fourth quarter of 2020.
He maintained that the electoral system for the National Assembly and provincial legislatures in South Africa allowed for political parties (and not individuals) to contest elections.
Lekota said after each general election, each qualifying party was allocated a certain number of seats in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures and that this was calculated according to a formula contained in the schedule of the Electoral Act.
Each party, he said, determined which of its members would fill the seats allocated. “While the requirement of proportionality is met in such a system, voters are estranged because a direct relationship with a Member of Parliament is absent, and a lack of accountability of members of the relevant legislatures to voters prevails, much to their chagrin.”
Lekota further said the increasing alienation of voters from the political system was detrimental to democracy and the well-being of society at large.
He decried the fact that voters were unable in terms of the current laws to choose an independent candidate to better represent them in Parliament.
“While voters who vote for an independent candidate will enjoy the benefits thereof, all voters, without exception, should equally enjoy a very direct link between themselves and their genuine representatives for reasons that are abundantly obvious,” he said.
Lekota highlighted that the argument for combining proportionality with constituency representation was overwhelming. “Only persons have the capability of representing voters in a granular manner, not political parties,” he said.
He said his new bill would address the Constitutional Court judgment by amending relevant electoral legislation to make provision for independent candidates to stand for public office in provincial and national elections without requiring such candidates to be a member of a particular party.
“It will provide for a legislative mechanism to allow independent candidates to stand for election.”
In terms of Lekota’s notice, interested parties and institutions are invited to submit written representations on the proposed content of the draft bill to National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise by September 30.