Parly debates independents running in all regions

Discussions on whether independent candidates can contest elections in multiple regions was the main part of parliament’s meeting on Tuesday.

The portfolio committee on home affairs met to discuss the Electoral Amendment Bill after it was granted a six-month extension by the Constitutional Court last month to continue with its work.

The committee has already said it plans to send the Bill to President Cyril Ramaphosa by the end of September, with its deadline to amend the Electoral Act set for 10 December.

During the discussions on Tuesday, the Electoral Commission

of South Africa (IEC) suggested that independent candidates be allowed to contest in more than one province, which was backed by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The committee’s content advisor, Adam Salmon, said if parties agreed to the inclusion of independent candidates’ agents, the committee would have to ask the National Assembly for permission to do so.

He said the committee would also decide on the likely percentage of signatures to be required from independents to stand for elections and the deposit they would be required to pay.

Responding to the presentation, DA MP Adrian Roos said: “The position of the DA is that independent candidates should be able to participate in all regions. One needs to say that a party can run in all provinces and independent candidates should be able to do so.”

IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe expressed the same sentiment.

“I am fully in support of the proposal that they should be able to contest in more than one region and that, of course, then take up a seat in the provincial legislature where they got the most votes,” she said.

However, ANC MP Tidimalo Legwase argued that independent candidates should contest one province because they can only occupy one seat. “I believe an independent candidate must only contest at a space where they are registered [and] they reside.

“They should not be able to contest in all the provinces because in as much as we want to say that political parties contest in all the areas, they are political parties [but] being independent means one. So, in my view, there’s no single person that stays in many provinces,” she said.

Meanwhile, IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo explained why the commission proposed the participation of independent candidates in all provinces. “The reason for that proposition is that National Assembly is a national constituency. It is not broken down, as it were, it is one national entity. So you should be able to contest that national entity from anywhere.”

The committee will meet next week, despite parliament being in recess until 15 August.