Acid test for secret ballot
UDM’s ConCourt application could change course of history if granted
The Constitutional Court said yesterday it would consider whether a motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma could be taken by secret ballot, as pressure continues to mount on him to resign after his controversial cabinet reshuffle.
Opposition parties said they believe the motion will be more likely to succeed if held by secret ballot, allowing for anonymous dissent by ANC MPs.
The ANC, which has a 62% majority in parliament, has officially stated that it will vote against the motion, due on April 18, as it did with similar motions before.
Bantu Holomisa, whose UDM party brought the secretballot case to the ConCourt, said he would also apply for a postponement of the no-confidence vote, to allow the legal process to be concluded. If the speaker of the National Assembly
‘ ‘ Mbet e’s office has until 10am today to respond
Baleka Mbete refused to postpone the vote, the UDM will go to court again to force her to do so, Holomisa said.
“We only need 65 to 70 people from the ANC, and the secret ballot can deliver the votes to remove Zuma.”
This is the second time the call for a secret ballot in parliament has gone to the courts. In 2015, the Western Cape High Court rejected a request by the political party Agang to order a secret ballot in a no-confidence vote against Zuma. The judgment not only held that the court could not order the speaker to conduct a secret ballot, but it also held that the speaker had no discretion to order such a secret ballot.
Meanwhile, the judgment has now become partly obsolete as the National Assembly has amended its rules since it was handed down, making it clear possible for giving the speaker does have to exercise the discretion on whether to order allow for a secret ballot.
What is far less clear is whether the court could or would order her to use that discretion to call a secret vote under the circumstances. Mbete’s office has until 10am today to respond to the UDM’s application.
The DA said in a statement yesterday that it placed their motion of no confidence against Zuma on ice pending a decision by the ConCourt on whether the vote will be done by secret ballot.
Parliament spokesman Moloto Mothapo confirmed the speaker had received the requests for postponement and that she would comply with the deadlines stipulated by the courts to provide her responding papers.