Electoral act’s party bias clear: activist
THE ELECTORAL Amendment Bill of 2022, which is supposed to make it easier for independent candidates to stand in provincial and national elections, was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa recently.
But Narendh Ganesh, a community activist who has lobbied for electoral reform, does not believe the bill does this.
Previously, those who wanted to serve in the national or provincial legislatures had to contest elections through a political party.
The Electoral Amendment Act 1 of 2023 changes this to allow people to contest elections without being affiliated to a party.
It also requires that the minister of home affairs establish an Electoral Reform Consultation Panel that would make recommendations on additional reforms after next year’s elections.
In a statement, Ramaphosa said: “The Electoral Amendment Bill marks a significant milestone in the evolution of our democracy by expanding electoral participation and widening the pool of leadership choice for the National Assembly and provincial legislatures. The bill presents a development that can only enrich and sustain our growing constitutional democracy.”
Ganesh, who had wanted to contest next year’s elections as an independent candidate, said the threshold for independent candidates was much higher than for political parties.
This, he said, set independent candidates up for failure.
“I have changed my mind about running as an independent candidate for various reasons, the primary one being that independent candidates are prejudiced by this act.
“For instance, 12 000 signatures are needed for founding documents, which is a mammoth task on its own. This while political parties require 1 000 signatures to register at national and provincial level.
“In any campaign, one requires massive funds in order to run for elections but independent candidates will not be receiving any form of funding.
“I am not sure about the exact amount but political parties do get a portion of funds for the election campaigns,” said Ganesh.
He said the amendment was meant to reform the electoral system but instead it has created more problems than it solved.
“Independent candidates can challenge (for) seats in all nine provinces as well as nationally. However, at this point we are not sure how many votes will actually secure one seat.
“If, for instance, independent candidates require 50 000 votes for a seat and they get 90 000 votes, what happens to the extra 40 000 votes? People are saying those will be wasted votes. I’ve also heard that they will be reallocated to political parties, which is difficult to understand.”
Ganesh said independent candidates were important to ensure greater levels of accountability.
“I’ve long fought for electoral reform because in the current system of proportional representation, our parliamentarians and legislators have people there by proxy,” he said.
“This means you elect a party that then decides who they put in certain positions. That places all decisions at the discretion of the party and not the people.
“Once we directly elect public representatives, the accountability aspect triples because leaders are then directly accountable to the people.
“Political parties, however, protect non-performing members in different spheres of power.
“Most people don’t even know the parliamentarian who is allocated to the area in which they live. And these people only appear during election time to caucus for their candidacy.
“So, it’s important to get leaders there (Parliament) that people know, leaders that the people can question and get answers from regarding the non-delivery of services.”
Ganesh said he would be launching a political party that will contest the 2024 elections.
Professor Karthy Govender, a constitutional law expert, said more discourse should be directed at understanding the act.
“It is important to note that this bill was passed without abiding by all the recommendations that were made by the committee that was looking into the bill.
“So the first question is what number of signatures does an individual candidate have to secure before their name goes on the ballot?
“The next question is what happens to the excess votes received by independent candidates? With political parties, excess votes count towards getting another seat whereas here, those votes, as it stands, would simply be lost.
“So there are issues about the constitutionality of the amendments to the act.
“By the time this challenge is heard by the Constitutional Court, the time for change would be too little because we are so close to the elections,” he said.