By Professor Bambihlelo Dikela Majuqwana
In June 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled it unconstitutional not to permit independent candidates to stand in parliamentary elections. This appears to have opened a can of worms for some political parties.
The fear among some, including the ANC, is that the electoral process will become burdensome with a long list of candidates that the voter must choose from. They worry that this will create confusion.
According to the ANC: "Ultimately, if voters find it difficult to vote and find their preferred choice on a ballot, the election will not reflect the will of the people. We need to review the qualifications to stand as an independent candidate and as a new party. If we do not make it stricter, we can have thousands of candidates”.
While such worries are somehow justified, the real purpose of democratic elections is seemingly missing in this thinking.
Elections are not a beauty contest but serve as a way to allow voters to choose people who can best represent their interests in parliament. In this way, the people can have their say and protect themselves from powerful forces in society that thrive on exploiting the weak.
Currently, there are about 400 members of parliament in South Africa representing a range of parties. The lion’s share of the vote is taken by the ANC, DA and the EFF. These three dominant parties, in turn, appoint from among their members' people to serve as MPs in parliament. However, it is hard to tell how these appointed MPs represent the voter since MPs appear very detached from the problems their communities face.
In fact, few members of the voting public know which MP represents them as a constituency. This is what makes independent candidates in national elections an attractive proposal because for the first time since 1994, voters will get a chance to directly select a parliamentary representative of their choice. They will be saved from patronising political parties who make promises that up to now, remain unfulfilled.
At this point, perhaps it is apt to take a leaf from the experience of jurisdictions where independent candidates are the norm.
In 2013, the European Union issued a report of a study entitled “Independent candidates in national and European elections.” According to the report, under European conditions: “Independent candidates perform better in systems with plurality rule or preferential voting compared to party-list PR systems.”
And most importantly: “Voters who vote for independent candidates tend to be more critical of the government and less satisfied with the way democracy works in their country than party-voters. They are also less likely to feel close to any political party. When independent candidates are elected to office, they frequently join parties and parliamentary party groups. Thus, independence is often not a principled position but a temporary status resulting from circumstantial choices made by individuals competing for political office.”
This European observation is extremely valid for our situation if we consider the levels of dissatisfaction with the government. As a result, voters feel democracy is increasingly becoming irrelevant as the rising levels of corruption and lack of accountability among those who lead in governing South Africa.
Declining voter turnout in recent national elections, in part, reflects these voter sentiments. This is the climate in which independent candidates will be introduced for the first time. The view that many independents may use the opportunity to get into parliament to advance their personal agendas rather than their constituency is alarming.
The prospect that once inside parliament, they may serve the interests of the existing parties and betray their constituencies cannot be ignored.
However, according to former DA MP Mmusi Maimane, for independents to succeed in electoral alliances: “There needs to be shared values (when it comes to coalitions) and those values need to be about the people’s interests,” and that “coalitions at local government are about electing the executive and passing budgets. I said to the associations that they must get their mandate from the community. If you’re in Soweto and people say they want electricity, then you need to prioritise that”.
Maimane’s wishes can only be tested by experience, but what he seems to ignore that is parliamentary politics may require resources independents do not command. One of those is financial resources to meet the costs of getting their “mandate from the community”.
As a result, many independents may enter the fray already captured by their sponsors who have agendas to pursue. It is this aspect that makes the ANC’S fears of independents causing chaos not unfounded.
If independents cause any disturbance at all, the reality of politics will, in time, lead to the system stabilising, possibly converging to the present situation of lack of accountability by the dominant political actors in parliament.
Indeed, there is no reason to think why such convergence should not occur in the long run if the basic principles of the electoral system do not accommodate direct forms of representation.
*Majuqwana is the Head of the Department of Engineering University of Zululand