Parliament has faced challenges to reform South Africa’s legislation regarding elections, but with it reaching its final stages, questions around its constitutionality remain.
Parliament has faced challenges in reforming South Africa’s legislation regarding elections, but with it reaching its final stages, questions around its constitutionality remain.
The Electoral Amendment Bill seeks to change the Electoral Act of 1998 to provide provisions for the election of independent candidates to the national parliament and provincial legislatures. “If come the next general elections, there are 20 million registered voters; and a popular individual running for office obtains a mandate from two million voters, it cannot be possible that despite securing 10% of registered voters, the individual is given only one seat in whichever legislature they ran for. Such an outcome would be grossly unfair and disenfranchising towards the voters,” said Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr.
Political parties, on the other hand, according to Pillay, require a founding document and 1,000 registered voters in respect of the National Assembly. He said that this, however, is dealt with by different legislation, and the new Electoral bill primarily deals with allowing independent candidates to contest elections, not accommodating them.
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