The Electoral Reform Consultation Panel has extended its call for submissions from the public and organisations (including political parties or prospective independent candidates) on the reform of the electoral system for the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures to 31 October 2024.

Section 23 of the Electoral Amendment Act of 2023 provided for the establishment of the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel (ERCP) ‘to independently investigate, consult on, report on and make recommendations in respect of potential reforms of the electoral system for the election of the National Assembly and the election of the Provincial Legislatures, in respect of the elections to be held after the 2024 Elections’.

These recommendations are for the 2029 National and Provincial Elections.

South Africa’s electoral system for National and Provincial Elections is derived from the Electoral Act of 1998, as recently amended by the Electoral Amendment Act of 2023, to allow for the inclusion of independent candidates.

Succ
essive South African elections since 1994 have used a party list proportional representation electoral system, in terms of which members of the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures are elected from the lists submitted by political parties to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).

The National Assembly in May 2024 approved the appointment of nine experts in the fields of academia, law, governance and election administration to undertake the process of consultation and produce a report with recommendations of possible electoral systems by 31 May 2025.

The Electoral Reform Consultation Panel has adopted an initial six guiding principles for evaluating proposed electoral systems for South Africa.

These principles draw on the country’s founding values set out in section 1 of the Constitution to establish a multi-party system of democratic government, based on accountability, responsiveness and openness to uphold values of human dignity, non-racialism, non-sexism, and the achievement of equalit
y.

The six guiding principles are: inclusivity, fairness, accountability, simplicity, electoral manageability and transparency.

‘As part of its function to consult and its duty to conduct a public participation process on its work, the ERCP hereby invites members of the public to make written submissions for its consideration,’ the panel said in a statement.

The panel will also hold extensive public consultations, which will later lead up to the production of a report, which must be submitted to the Minister of Home Affairs by 31 May 2025 and be tabled before Parliament within 30 days for its consideration.

‘The ERCP respectfully calls and requests members of the public, as individuals or through organisations to which they belong, to make submissions on why, how and whether the current South African electoral system should be reformed, changed or even replaced with another one,’ the panel said.

The period for written submissions has been extended to 31 October 2024.

All the submissions should be addres
sed to Advocate Richard K Sizani, the Chairperson of the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel and may be forwarded in any of the following ways:

1. Delivered by hand to House 1, Ministry of Home Affairs, 909 Arcadia Street, Hatfield, Pretoria.

2. Delivered by hand to the nearest Home Affairs office.

3. Mailed to Electoral Reform Consultation Panel at Private Bag X114, Pretoria, 0001.

4. Emailed to [email protected].

The public may follow the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel on social media on the following handles:

https://x.com/Electoral_RCP and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564445482964.

Any enquiries should be directed to:

Adv. Richard K Sizani

Chairperson of the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel

Cellphone number 082 904 9907.

Source: South African Government News Agency