Civil society calls for ‘sunset clause’ in electoral bill
● The controversial Electoral Bill passed by the National Assembly this week should be valid for the 2024 general elections only, and there should a national convention to find a lasting solution beyond that period.
This is what the civil society body, the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac), is going to argue when the National Council of Provinces conducts public hearings on the bill for its concurrence after it was passed by the National Assembly on Thursday.
The contentious bill was passed with the support of 232 votes from the ANC, the EFF, PAC, NFP and Al Jama-ah.
It was denounced by 98 votes from the DA, IFP, ACDP, COPE, UDM, ATM and the FF Plus, while the Good party and the AIC abstained.
Civil society bodies are also vehemently opposed to it and have made it clear they are prepared to challenge it all the way to the Constitutional Court should they get no joy from the NCOP.
The bill will, for the first time, allow independent candidates to contest national and provincial elections in 2024.
While that has been hailed as groundbreaking, those opposed to the bill say their biggest concern is that it disadvantages independents. It requires them to submit a petition of at least 20,000 signatures in a region they wish to contest, while parties need submit only 1,000.
The bill also dictates that an independent should pay the same deposit as well-funded political parties.
Lawson Naidoo, the executive secretary for Casac, said it plans to persuade the NCOP to change the bill by inserting “a sunset clause” that makes it clear the current bill will be used for 2024 only.
“This is really a political solution to ensure that we’re able to have proper elections for 2024, as well as to try to persuade the NCOP to change some of the more problematic aspects of the bill, such as the signature requirements for independent candidates,” said Naidoo.
“To do that [will] make the bill more acceptable. Importantly, it needs to include in the bill a kind of a sunset clause that says this system will only apply for the 2024 elections. [It must also urge] parliament to start a national discourse to say what kind of electoral system we need and have that system in good time for 2029.”
Casac, which is part of 19 bodies, wrote to parliament on Thursday threatening legal action if the bill was passed in its current form. Naidoo said MPs voting in favour of the bill sent a bad message to voters.
“It’s simply not levelling the playing field,” he said.
“The electoral system is fundamental to a democracy: if the people complain about the system, they’ll complain about the outcomes of an election and that’s not good for democracy.
“The ANC and the EFF used their numbers to pass the legislation, and the message says to voters that they don’t care about your views on this.
“And that’s particularly dangerous in the context of where we’ve been in recent elections, which is dwindling rates of voter participation.”
The bill stems from a June 2020 Constitutional Court judgment that found the Electoral Act was unconstitutional because it said only people belonging to a political party could contest national and provincial elections.
It gave parliament 24 months to remedy the constitutional defect, but the national legislature started processing the bill only in late January because the home affairs minister submitted it only then, forcing parliament to ask the Constitutional Court to extend the June 2022 deadline to December.
The National Assembly has also been slammed for its handling of the bill, with critics saying it did a rushed job and did not conduct adequate public consultation.
This is really a political solution to ensure that we’re able to have proper elections for 2024, as well as to try to persuade the NCOP to change some of the more problematic aspects of the bill Lawson Naidoo Casac executive secretary