Will too many political parties spoil the ballot?

SOUTH Africa has some 400 political parties and independent candidates going into the election year in 2024.

Some political commentators say this is a case of “too many cooks spoil the broth”, or is it the ballot? However, many others believe this is the epitome of a maturing democracy.

The mushrooming of new and untested political parties has made the prospects of coalition politics an immediate reality rather than a distant possibility.

This week, South African voters welcomed the country’s newest political party with the emergence of Roger Jardine’s Change Starts Now party.

The Electoral Commission (IEC) says, after receiving over 70 new applications, this is the biggest number of parties the country has ever seen.

Only 60 of the 70 new parties that applied were successfully registered.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula was recently quoted as saying that the avalanche of new parties is intended to destabilise the ANC and usher in a new form of coalition politics in the country.

Parties that have been launched recently include the African Congress for Transformation (ACT) led by Ace Magashule, Rise Mzansi, Xiluva, the South African Rainbow Alliance (Sara), all gunning for the minds and hearts of the more than 36 million South Africans who are eligible to vote.

These new political offshoots were preceded by parties such as Mmusi Maimane’s Build One SA (Bosa) and the All African Alliance Movement (AAAM), which endorsed former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng as its presidential candidate.

Political commentators have indicated that the elections will usher in a wave of coalition governments.

Veteran political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe says the dramatic spike in the number of parties set to contest the upcoming elections is a vote of no confidence against established parties, especially the ruling party.

“On the surface, the increase in the number of parties is an indictment on the existing parties. It is a motion of no confidence.

“People are realising that these parties have become bogged in fighting each other.

“In the process, the parties have forgotten the voters,” Seepe said.

During a debate on Radio 702 on the rise of parties ahead of the elections, political analyst Steven Friedman said there was nothing wrong with having a variety of parties for voters to choose from, provided that those parties have a base among voters that they can mobilise.

“I’d argue that if you had political parties amalgamating now they would probably lose support because voters would have less choice than they have at the moment,” he said.

Seepe says there is a positive spin to this development as it is indicative of a maturing democracy.

“Ordinary people have decided they cannot continue to outsource their future to big parties. For too long, existing parties have behaved as if they own people. Not any more,” he said.

The fertile ground for a fierce 2024 election received another boost when President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law an Electoral Amendment Bill which provides for the amendment of the Electoral Act (Act No 73 of 1998), in order to give effect to a Constitutional Court judgment that was handed down on June 11, 2020.

On the negative side, Seepe says the mushrooming of political parties will stretch the votes too thinly, resulting in wasted votes instead of a strengthening of the democratic ethos.

“Unfortunately, the mushrooming of small parties will not lead to a strengthening of democracy. If anything, many votes will be wasted due to the high threshold required to earn a seat in government.”

The voters, he added, will find that “having many parties will result in spreading their votes too thinly. Some of the votes are likely to be wasted.”