DA Moves to Change SA Electoral System

[LazyLion]

DA MP James Selfe will table a private members' bill in Parliament on Monday proposing changes to South Africa's electoral system.

Through the draft Electoral Reform Bill, the Democratic Alliance sought to "re-introduce a constituency system for the National Assembly".

Currently, the 400 seats in the National Assembly are allocated according to the exact number of votes obtained by political parties in general elections.

MPs are elected from ranked national lists provided by parties to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

Selfe told journalists at Parliament the current system had many advantages and was largely immune to manipulation.

But, the system's greatest weakness was a lack of accountability by MPs to the voters who elected them.

In many instances voters did not know who the MPs allocated to their constituencies were.

"This tends to lead to alienation and cynicism along with relatively low levels of [political] participation... There's a gradual downward trend as less and less people get out to vote," said Selfe.

He suggested a direct link between single MPs and their constituents, similar to the system used in the United Kingdom and in pre-democratic South Africa.

But, this should be done within the confines of the Constitution, which insisted on proportional representation.

"Accordingly, we would need to have a mixed system of constituencies and lists to guarantee proportionality to get that constitutional prescription adhered to."

The bill proposed 100 constituencies around the country, each to be represented by three MPs.

MPs would be elected by proportional representation, filling 300 of the National Assembly's 400 seats.

In practical terms, political parties would submit a ranked list of five names to the IEC for inclusion in the constituency contest.

"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."

The DA said voters would have the advantage of seeing the individual who would represent their interests in the National Assembly.

A second ballot paper would contain only the list of parties contesting the election.

Based on the outcome of this, the electoral commission would allocate 100 seats to MPs from parties' national lists.


Source : Sapa /cp/hdw/clh/jk
Date : 04 Mar 2013 13:44

 

[w1z4rd]

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Interesting proposal. I wonder how the man on the street feels about this, though. Chances are you still won't 'know' the people you can vote for. It'll just be a face on a ballot.

I like the idea of a person maybe being held to account instead of just the party. For example, with something like the Protection of State Information Bill, if a community can engage with an actual person and put pressure on him to not vote for it, I'm sure it'll be more effective than just blindly petitioning the political party he belongs to.

I'm guessing the ANC will oppose this, as it might make it more difficult to use their MPs as drones.

 

[saksakgp]

Why change something that works?

 

[w1z4rd]

Why change something that works?

A wooden wheel works, doesnt mean there is not space for a rubber wheel.

 

[sox63]

Is this not what Agang is also proposing? But because they are not in government, their campaign is a million signatures or something along those lines?

 

[STS]

American politics here we come

 

[w1z4rd]

American politics here we come

How so?

 

[Cool E]

kikikikiki lol

Seems like AGANG is a threat.

 

[w1z4rd]

kikikikiki lol

Seems like AGANG is a threat.

Lol. Sure, just like COPE was.

 

[cr@zydude]

I wouldn't be for it. I'd rather like us to be able to directly vote for our NCOP representatives, people who are meant to represent the province. A constituency system could cause serious problems, especially since our parliament chooses our president. The USA shows the problem of 'winner takes all' voting in their states. We could theoretically end up with a president whose party didn't receive the majority of votes.

Unless we can vote for the president and parliament separately, which would need even bigger constitutional changes, I say no.

 

[Cool E]

Lol. Sure, just like COPE was.

Cope was a threat to ANC not DA

 

[w1z4rd]

I wouldn't be for it. I'd rather like us to be able to directly vote for our NCOP representatives, people who are meant to represent the province. A constituency system could cause serious problems, especially since our parliament chooses our president. The USA shows the problem of 'winner takes all' voting in their states. We could theoretically end up with a president whose party didn't receive the majority of votes.

Unless we can vote for the president and parliament separately, which would need even bigger constitutional changes, I say no.

Could you clarify how under this system we could end up with a president whos party did not receive the majority of the votes?

 

[DreamKing]

how??

one voter one vote? / one voter three votes?

 

[DreamKing]

Could you clarify how under this system we could end up with a president whos party did not receive the majority of the votes?

simple.

for example,

anc 1 : 100000
anc 2 : 200
anc 3 : 100

DA 1 : 1000
DA 2 : 500
DA 3 : 50

=> anc1, DA1 , DA2 have the seats. But in total anc has 100300 votes, DA only has 1550 Votes. DA has two seats but anc only has one.

 

[sox63]

I wouldn't be for it. I'd rather like us to be able to directly vote for our NCOP representatives, people who are meant to represent the province. A constituency system could cause serious problems, especially since our parliament chooses our president. The USA shows the problem of 'winner takes all' voting in their states. We could theoretically end up with a president whose party didn't receive the majority of votes.

Unless we can vote for the president and parliament separately, which would need even bigger constitutional changes, I say no.

I think what Agang and DA proposed actually makes sense. Currently voters have no visibility on how the MPs are detirmined by the respective parties and they get "forced upon" people. This way each constituency knows their canidate and if they were gonna vote ANC/DA anyway, this way they vote directly for the canidate.

That way anomalies like Lindiwe Mazibuko's rapid rise to leadership would be more believable if the people from her native umlazi constituency knew who she before she became prominant

 

[Garson007]

Completely unnecessary complication to the system. Our municipalities already work like this and it works fine. We only need local representation and not national. It completely disturbs what the national assembly's job is - a conduit of ideology not personal representation.

I also don't understand the mathematics, as 100 cannot fix the proportionality of the other 300 at all times - so that cannot constitutionally work.

The only fix I would implement is the abolishment of redeployment in between sittings. Secondly I'd propose splitting the presidency.

 

[cr@zydude]

simple.

for example,

anc 1 : 100000
anc 2 : 200
anc 3 : 100

DA 1 : 1000
DA 2 : 500
DA 3 : 50

=> anc1, DA1 , DA2 have the seats. But in total anc has 100300 votes, DA only has 1550 Votes. DA has two seats but anc only has one.

This, it's no longer about the most votes, but the most areas. Some areas become, 'battle grounds' as in the US, and it's just about 51% in those areas. The strong holds don't matter, and neither do the 49% of people who lose in an area.

I think what Agang and DA proposed actually makes sense. Currently voters have no visibility on how the MPs are detirmined by the respective parties and they get "forced upon" people. This way each constituency knows their canidate and if they were gonna vote ANC/DA anyway, this way they vote directly for the canidate.

That way anomalies like Lindiwe Mazibuko's rapid rise to leadership would be more believable if the people from her native umlazi constituency knew who she before she became prominant

I believe, that you should get to vote for your councilor, but on a national level, it has to be an average of all people. Otherwise small towns get over represented, and the problem of winning the most areas without winning overall. I might understand this in the NCOP, as that is meant to be broken down by province.

Completely unnecessary complication to the system. Our municipalities already work like this and it works fine. We only need local representation and not national. It completely disturbs what the national assembly's job is - a conduit of ideology not personal representation.

I also don't understand the mathematics, as 100 cannot fix the proportionality of the other 300 at all times - so that cannot constitutionally work.

The only fix I would implement is the abolishment of redeployment in between sittings. Secondly I'd propose splitting the presidency.

The president/prime minister split has been talked about for a while. Quite recently, their was some talk in the ANC, and the IFP have pushed for it before. South Africans could FINALLY, pick their own head of state, and it remove the meet and greet duties from the head of government.

 

[saksakgp]

Constituent A in Northern Cape will have 10 000 people while constituent B in Gauteng will have 500 000 people. Three MPs for each? Nah...

 

[krycor]

I like it, I like it a lot haha, forces the parties to be good everywhere rather than a few places