News24.com | Electoral Amendment Bill: Civil society slams Parliament for not meeting constitutional obligations

• Several civic organisations say Parliament has not met its obligations with the Electoral Amendment Bill.
• The groups add the bill in its current form is unconstitutional.
• The committee has defended its process after adopting a motion of desirability for the bill. 

A group of several civil society organisations says Parliament has not met its obligations set out by the Constitutional Court in its work on the Electoral Amendment Bill.

Last Friday, the organisations met to discuss a collective approach to the bill against the backdrop of the looming 11 June deadline to pass the amendment, which Parliament is certain to miss.

In June 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled "the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 is unconstitutional to the extent that it requires that adult citizens may be elected to the National Assembly and provincial legislatures only through their membership of political parties".

The amendment must thus create provisions for people not belonging to a party to be elected to Parliament and provincial legislatures.

At their meeting, the One South Africa Movement (OSA), Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC), Democracy Works, Independent Candidate Association, Inclusive Society Institute, FW de Klerk Foundation, Africa School of Governance, Raising Righteous Rulers, Citizens Parliament, Helen Suzman Foundation and My Vote Counts agreed on several matters.

"Firstly, that Parliament has not met its obligations as set out by the Constitutional Court. All the parties agree that the proposed bill in its current form is unconstitutional.

"They agreed that an overhaul of the electoral system with a constituency based system at its core is what Parliament is required to undertake and not the light touch approach to amending the Electoral Act that it has adopted," read the joint statement.

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"There was also unanimous agreement that the next elections in 2024 must be conducted under a new electoral system - there can be no delay, postponement or an election conducted under unconstitutional legislation.

"In this regard, concern was expressed by all the organisations about the lack of meaningful public participation as a result of Parliament's hurried process to produce the bill. Some organisations are exploring their legal options regarding the processing of the current bill."

The organisations agreed on a set of negotiables and a set of non-negotiables.

The non-negotiables are:

The negotiables are:

• How seats are to be divided nationally and regionally in the National Assembly.
• Single ballot vs two ballots.
• Open vs closed party-list system.

"Fundamentally, the civil society organisations are concerned with ensuring a constitutionally compliant electoral process that upholds the sanctity of the ballot box and honours the dignity, worth and equality of each individual voter."

The Department of Home Affairs drafted the bill after Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi ignored the advice of a Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC).

The MAC's majority recommendation envisaged a system that provided a mixed single-member constituency and proportional representation (PR) system.

Motsoaledi and his department went with the minority advice and drafted a bill that relied solely on a PR system, amending it as little as possible.

This route is supported by the ANC.

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On Tuesday, the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs adopted a motion of desirability on the bill. This clears the way for the committee to consider and deliberate on it.

Committee chairperson Mosa Chabane defended the committee's processing of the bill, saying it intended "to ensure the bill's amendment is done in a thorough and meticulous way that also ensures extensive public consultation, primarily because the amendment of this act has a direct bearing on the credibility of South Africa's democracy".

"The committee and, by extension, Parliament has, at no stage, sought to delay the amendment and has emphasised that the inclusion of independent candidates will strengthen South Africa's democracy. It is on this basis that the committee had to make time for an extensive and meaningful public consultation process," he said in a statement.

Parliament has approached the Constitutional Court for an extension of the deadline.