February marks the last month Parliament has to deliberate on the controversial Electoral Amendment Bill, which is set to change how Parliament deals with individual candidates.
The Constitutional Court has granted Parliament’s request to further extend the deadline for the finalisation of the bill until 28 February 2023.
In December 2022, Parliament requested an extension from the Constitutional Court to finish the bill. The court issued an interim order to extend the deadline for the Electoral Act until 31 January.
Later that same month, on 20 January, the court agreed to extend its invalidity order until 28 February 2023 to allow Parliament more time to complete the bill, which seeks to amend the Electoral Act.
The bill seeks to adjust how and who can run for political positions in South Africa.
This comes after a decisive ruling by the Constitutional Court in June 2020 that tasked Parliament to renovate the electoral system to allow independent candidates to run for political office without being affiliated with a political party.
Parliament has said it reached a ‘workable system’; however, public backlash has encouraged the authority to return to the drawing board on some points of contention.
Recent reconsideration includes the National Council of Province’s (NCOP) recent proposal to add a new paragraph to the Electoral Amendment Bill to address the unequal treatment of party candidates and independent candidates.
Only independent candidates must gather 20% of the votes required for a seat, represented by signatures, from the previous election.
The new proposal requires both party and independent candidates to gather the same amount of signatures to support their candidacy.
Before this proposal, a candidate running for a 44,000-vote seat would need 8,800 signatures (20% of total votes). The original bill only required political parties to provide a founding document and the support of 1,000 registered voters for the National Assembly.
A further change includes establishing an expert panel to consider more widespread electoral reform.
Pushback
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) said the latest extension follows two failures by Parliament to meet the original date, 10 June 2022.
Rachel Fischer, OUTA’s parliamentary engagement and research manager, said that the Constitutional Court had no other option than to extend after Parliament forced its hand in December.
She added that it must be noted that the whole situation is absurd, and the two deadline extensions could have been avoided had Parliament prioritised its duties to ensure broad electoral reform by June 2022, as per the Constitutional Court’s original instruction.
“As often happens in South Africa, a golden opportunity for reform has been lost through political interference. Now we find ourselves at an impasse that is casting a shadow over the 2024 national elections,” said Fischer.
Electoral Amendment Bill