Civil society raises concerns on the Electoral Amendment Bill

Some civil society organisations have expressed concerns over the Electoral Amendment Bill process that is currently under way in Parliament. In 2020 the Constitutional Court declared the Electoral Act unconstitutional to the extent that it requires adult citizens to be members of political parties in order to be elected to the National Assembly and provincial…

Some civil society organizations have expressed concerns over the Electoral Amendment Bill process that is currently underway in Parliament. In 2020 the Constitutional Court declared the Electoral Act unconstitutional to the extent that it requires adult citizens to be members of political parties to be elected to the National Assembly and provincial legislatures.

The major issue raised by these groups around the parliamentary process relates to the omission of the majority of recommendations made to the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee through the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC).

The civil society group My Vote Counts says the bill in its current form will not be able to comply with the constitutional obligations. Senior Electoral Researcher at My Vote Counts, Letlhogonolo Letshele says there was consensus in favour of the majority report from the MAC which speaks to the overall changing of the system.

“Regardless of this, the bill is still based on the minority report which is aligned to the mere cosmetics changes in the electoral system by merely including the independent candidates. Now, the risk to this, especially with regards to the upcoming 2024 general elections, is that the bill will not pass the constitutionality test because the contents of the bill are not entirely constitutional,” concluded Letshele