This week the Democratic Alliance tabled a Private Members Bill that proposes dramatic reforms to our electoral system. This Bill proposes a constituency system where voters would vote for their constituency representatives. Under our proposal 100 constituencies would exist with the same number of voters. Three MP’s would represent each constituency elected proportionally.
To ensure that smaller parties with pockets of support spread throughout the country are not excluded, a further 100 MP’s are elected proportionally from national lists. All this meets proportional principles and ensures that votes are not “wasted”.
All political parties and civil society in general have been talking about the need for a change to our electoral system. Calls have been made for a system that ensures that Members of Parliaments (MPs) are accountable to voters. This Bill proposes exactly that.
No sooner was the announcement made about this Bill when the ANC reacted without even having read the Bill! ANC Chief Whip, Mathole Motshekga reacted by saying that changing the electoral system would not guarantee MP’s becoming more accountable. The ANC failed to explain what would!
Motshekga accused the DA of being “guilty of deliberate distortion and overlooking the complexity of the subject of electoral reform.” If this is so, then let’s debate the subject so this issue can move forward. If a different electoral system is, to quote the ANC again, “no panacea”, then what is?
What is the ANC’s alternative? I suggest that there is no alternative by the ANC. It suits them well to keep the system in its present form. In so doing, it can completely dominate, control and muffle its Members of Parliament as it is currently doing. An MP with its own constituency, not dependant on his or her party, and dependent on and working for the voter simply doesn’t suit the ANC. Simply put; they fear their loosening on their grip on power.
Other opposition Parties are quick to give lip-service in support for electoral reform, but as soon as something concrete, such as this Bill is tabled their true intentions are displayed. I’d be interested to see COPE’s Juli Killian’s “entire picture” that needs to be looked at that she talks about. I suspect that there’s “no picture” at all.
As much as the ANC may hate it, this Bill is now public knowledge and must now follow a public process. The Bill must now be tabled at the Portfolio Committee of Home Affairs where the Bill needs to be considered. It will be at this stage when the public will see the true intentions of each party on this matter and who truly wants to be accountable to the voter.
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