The ANC has done an about turn on the issue of a cooling-off period for individuals wanting to stand as independent candidates in national and provincial elections.
The Electoral Amendment Bill as submitted to parliament required a cooling-off period of three months during which an independent candidate could not be a member of a political party. The intention was to prevent politicians who did not make it onto the lists of their political parties opting instead to stand as independent candidates.
During last week’s meeting of parliament’s home affairs committee, which is deliberating on the bill, the ANC supported the clause requiring a cooling-off period despite the opposition by the DA and the IFP. But at Wednesday’s meeting, ANC MP Brandon Pillay agreed that it should be withdrawn “in the light of the fact that it might be quite cumbersome and challenging for the IEC (Electoral Commission of SA) to police or manage.”
The IEC has indicated that it would not be able to monitor compliance with a cooling-off period.
The committee decided that independent candidates would be able to contest both the national and provincial elections but would only be able to occupy one seat. IEC acting CEO Masego Sheburi explained that while national and provincial elections take place at the same time they are two separate elections “so there cannot be any reasonable bar against an independent candidate contesting both elections” though they will only be able to contest for a seat in the provincial legislature in the province in which they are resident and are registered to vote.
It was unclear what the committee decided regarding which seat an independent candidate would occupy should they win a seat in both the national and provincial elections. Sheburi said the independent candidate should be assigned the seat where they got the most votes but Pillay and DA MP Adrian Roos argued that they should choose upfront before the elections whether they wanted to go to the National Assembly or the provincial legislature should they win a seat in both.
Pillay cautioned that if it were left to choice after the election then this could result in a political party which achieved the quota for a seat, losing that seat. However IEC vice-chair Janet Love pointed out that that would create a difference between what independent candidates and candidates on political party lists were required to do, as political parties can place candidates on both provincial-to-national and provincial lists.
The ANC also supports the idea that independent candidates can contest multiple regions for National Assembly seats rather than being restricted to one and that they should be represented by agents at voting and counting stations, with the number of representatives being left to the IEC to determine in its regulations. This is also the view of the IEC, which argued that the bill should set out the guiding principles for the inclusion of party agents but not set a specific number as this would depend on the number of candidates standing for the elections and the availability of voting stations.
Roos argued that the bill should provide for at least one agent and that this could not be left entirely to regulation. Agents were necessary, he said, to ensure that there were no irregularities and for the elections to be perceived to be free and fair.
The IEC stressed that the bill should ensure that political parties did not lose a seat when an independent candidate vacated a seat as a result of the method of calculating the seat allocation but Roos disagreed with the method of calculation proposed by the IEC.
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