The Electoral Amendment Bill, 2013

Background:

Our current PR system

The current electoral system for the National Assembly is a fixed list Proportional Representation.

The 400 seats are allocated according to the exact proportion of votes that parties obtain in the election.

Each party has a ranked list to determine which candidates are elected to the National Assembly.

Advantages of the PR system

Easy to understand and perceived to be fair.

Almost exactly reflects the will of voters.

Inclusive of small parties.

Substantially immune to manipulation.

Weaknesses of the PR system

Lack of accountability by MPs to voters who elected them.

Voters do not know who “their” MPs are.

Leads to alienation and cynicism along with relatively low levels of participation.

MPs cannot perform constituency work in “allocated constituencies” because they have no particular rights or entitlements.

Accountability is clearly better achieved by a constituency system where there is a direct link between a single MP and his/her constituents, such as happens in the UK (and existed in pre-democratic South Africa).

But the Constitution states in section 46(1) as follows:

“The National Assembly consists of no fewer than 350And no more than 400 women and men elected in termsof an electoral system that…

(d) results, in general, in proportional representation.”

Any constituency system would have to conform to this prescription.

A pure single-member constituency system is highly unlikely to result in proportional representation.

Accordingly we would need to have a “mixed system” of constituencies and a list to guarantee proportionality.

There are various different ways in which this can be achieved.

Slabbert Commission (2003)

Suggested 69 multi-member constituencies returning between 3 and 7 members each, electing 300 MPs in total.

A further 100 representatives “allocated from national lists to restore overall proportionality”.

“Both constituency and national lists will be closed” (i.e. the parties determine the order of candidates to be elected).

Slabbert Commission (2003)

Suggested transitional arrangements for 2004 elections:

200 MPs from nine provincial “constituencies” 200 MPs from national lists

“This in effect corresponds with the current electoral system.”

Independent Panel of Assessmentof Parliament (2009)

Chaired by Pregs Govender and included Max Sisulu.

“The view of the Panel is that the current electoral system should be replaced by a mixed system which attempts to capture the benefits of both the constituency-based and proportional representation electoral system.”

Municipal Structures Act (1998)

Provides for same number of ward and list councillors.

Why not use a similar 200/200 system for the National Assembly?

Constituencies would consist of ± 118 275 voters, which is too large a number of voters to service effectively.

Very difficult to achieve overall proportionality, as required by the Constitution.

May lead to exclusion of minority parties who enjoy neither geographic concentration of support nor threshold of support to guarantee the election of list candidates.

The Electoral Amendment Bill at a glance

The Bill seeks to achieve what the Slabbert Commission called “core values of fairness, inclusiveness and simplicity”.

The Bill proposes 100 constituencies, each to be represented by 3 MPs elected by proportional representation, thereby filling the first 300 seats in the National Assembly.

A “top-up” of 100 seats is allocated so that the overall composition of the National Assembly reflects the proportion of votes cast by the electorate for parties as closely as possible.

How would this work in practice?

Purely illustratively, this is how it could work using the number of registered voters for the 2011 Local Government Election (these figures will change in view of census data):

Total number of voters: 23 655 046

Number of constituencies: 100

Quota per constituency: 236 550

Registered voters per province

Eastern CapeFree StateGauteng KZNMpumalangaNorthern CapeLimpopoNorth WestWestern Cape

3 111 5331 386 5215 592 6704 648 7321 718 315

572 1432 341 4971 576 8992 706 736

Seats per province (voters divided by quota)

Eastern CapeFree StateGauteng KZNMpumalangaNorthern CapeLimpopoNorth WestWestern Cape

13.15385.8614

23.642619.6522

7.26402.41879.89856.6662

11.442595

Rounded off, 5 provinces each getan extra constituency

Eastern CapeFree StateGauteng KZNMpumalangaNorthern CapeLimpopoNorth WestWestern Cape

The election process

The Electoral Commission would demarcate constituencies, as it does voting districts currently. Each constituency would have substantially the same number of voters and cannot straddle provincial boundaries.

Every party contesting constituencies would submit a list of names of five candidates, in ranked order, for that constituency.

These names and the logo of the party would appear on the ballot paper for that constituency, but voters would still vote for a party.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTION 2014South Peninsula Constituency

The election process (cont.)

The MPs from a constituency would be elected using the same PR system that is currently used to elect the regional list MPs.

If a casual vacancy occurs in a constituency, it would be filled by the next person on that party’s list for the constituency.

Once the 300 MPs from constituencies have been elected, the Electoral Commission would allocate 100 MPs from national lists submitted by parties so that the overall composition of the National Assembly reflects the proportions of votes cast for each party.

Why not apply this to the Provincial Legislature?

This is best regulated in provincial constitutions.

Some provinces have minimum numbers of MPLs (30) which makes the applications of quotas complicated.

This would mean that the constituencies for the Provincial Legislature would be different from the National Assembly, leading to confusion.

• But need to have discussion at the level of the NCOP.

How does the Bill affect absent & special voters?

Allows eligible South Africans living abroad to register as voters at embassies and consulates.

Allows registered voters who know that they will be absent from their voting districts to apply in advance for special votes for both the National Assembly and the Provincial Legislature. This applies to voters inside and outside South Africa.

Obliges the Electoral Commission to establish temporary voting stations at locations overseas where more than 500 valid applications for special votes have been received.