THE National Assembly has adopted the Electoral Amendment Bill which now allows independent candidates to contest for state power.
Despite much criticism from civil society and opposition parties who lambasted the bill in its current form, the ANC used its majority with much-needed help from the EFF to adopt it with 232 votes to 98 against the bill.
Most opposition parties described the bill as a stumbling block for independent candidates to contest in the provincial and national elections.
They argued that the bill made it difficult for independent candidates to contest.
The parties said they would not support the bill and suggested further consultations where perhaps a compromise could be reached.
The Amendment Bill came about after the Constitutional Court ruled that Parliament must change the law to allow individuals to contest and gave it 18 months to do so ahead of the 2024 elections.
Parties lambasted the ANC government for dragging its feet in starting the process and how it didn’t consult widely.
In its current form, the bill requires individuals to secure 20% of the quota of votes from the previous which is much higher than required from political parties.
It also limits individuals to contest only 200 seats in the National Assembly as compared to 400 allowed for political parties.
This means that individuals would have to acquire more votes to secure a seat than political parties, a point raised by opposition parties in the debate.
DA Member of Parliament Adrian Roos argued that independent candidates were further required to pay registration fees and submitting petitions, they could only gain one seat per region in the National Assembly in one province and the rest of the votes are discarded.
“This is clearly unfair. Neither of the Ministerial Advisory Committees on the bill question where the allocation system comes from, as it was nowhere in their report, and it’s unprecedented in world elections,” said Roos.
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He said it has emerged that the likely beneficiary of the discarded votes was the ANC.
Roos pointed out that the other serious concern on the bill was that it excluded agents at polling stations to observe the election process.
“The committee unanimously agreed that independents and parties are entitled to two agents to view the voting process either when this was given effect in the proposed amendment. It was worded in such a way that it gives the IEC the discretion to reduce the number based on a specific venue,” he said.
National Freedom Party MP Sheik Emam argued that questions needed to be asked about whether enough has been done to level the playing field and allow independent candidates to contest fairly.
Emam said it could not be when independent candidates are required to have 20 000 signatures while political parties only required 1 000.
“Are we creating such a difficult environment for individuals or independence in order to discourage them from participating?
‘”Are we achieving the intended purpose of ensuring that we have a Constitution-based political system where people will be participating elected directly by the constituents?” he asked.
The bill will now be sent to the National Council of Provinces before it can be handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign it into law.
