I decided recently to take a look at the candidate lists for our upcoming
Local Government elections which, I can tell you, are not as boring as you might
think. Obviously lots of characters and perhaps surprisingly, quite a few plots
and subplots. The subplots include: seasoned politicians using the system to
maximum advantage; families uniting to forge their futures; and individuals
milking the system on their way to political stardom, or at least to a place at
the public trough.
The system
In order to follow the storyline, an understanding of the basis of our
Local Government electoral system is needed. If you have already passed LGE
101, then move on to the next heading, if not then make yourself comfortable
and read on.
Our Local Government electoral system is described as a mixed system in
that it is half Constituency- based, and half political party-based Proportional
Representation (PR). This means that on polling day you receive two ballot
papers – one with the individuals standing as Ward candidates for your
constituency vote, and one with just the political parties for your PR vote.
After voting is complete, all the votes across all the wards are
counted. In the case of registered
political parties, the total of the Ward candidates’ votes and PR votes are
then used to determine how many overall seats the party is entitled to. Wards
that are won outright by their candidates are subtracted from this overall seat
determination, with the remainder being allocated as PR seats. It is important
to note here that Independent candidates only appear on the Ward list as they
are not entitled to a PR vote. Only registered political parties using the list
system qualify to receive 2 votes instead of just the 1.
Registering a political party at municipal level is a fairly simple
and inexpensive process, requiring the support of what used to be only 50 but
is now 100 registered voters, and a R200 registration fee. National
registration requires 500 signatures and a R500 registration fee.
Participating in an election is also relatively inexpensive. Political
parties are required to pay deposits of R3500 per contested metro, and R2000
per contested local council, which amounts cover ALL ward and proportional elections
in those councils. An independent candidate is required to pay a R1000 deposit
to contest a single ward (source IEC 2016 Electoral Handbook). Deposits are
refunded if a single council seat is won, irrespective of the number of
candidates fielded by a party.
Storyline: Chapter 1 – Seasoned
politicians
Most of the long-established parties have canny politicians who can
spot an opportunity for electoral advantage from a mile away. This holds
particularly true for those parties that have been suffering from dwindling
support over the years, and no longer have a sufficient number of suitable
candidates to field in all wards of a council. Not to be deterred by this
inconvenience, they have taken to fielding the same candidate in multiple
wards. A neat solution to personnel shortages, one that allows them to garner
double the potential votes in wards that they would otherwise have had only the
PR vote to rely upon. In other words they are able to maximise the potential
number of votes with minimum personnel.
All of the main parties have adopted this strategy for the upcoming
elections, including the ANC, DA and EFF. The most prolific however are: FF+,
ACDP, COPE, AZAPO, and the UDM.
Storyline: Chapter 2 – Family
Fortunes
While studying the lists it became clear that there are a few
“organisations” that look more like a family business than a political party.
Generally the same last names, with ID numbers showing clear generational
interrelationships. While it is
possible, maybe even likely, that a family would share political viewpoints, it
doesn’t seem that many outside of the family share their views. However, with true family spirit, each has
taken on the burden of standing in multiple wards in the hope of spreading
their ideology far and wide...... or something. Metro councils are the most
attractive for family participation, with as few as 8 candidates taking on the
responsibility of standing in 100 wards in Cape Town, 6 candidates standing in
54 wards in PE, 6 candidates taking on 136 wards in Johannesburg, and 6
candidates standing in 113 wards in Tshwane. One has to admire their determination!
Storyline: Chapter 3 –
Individual Tenacity
Boldly going where no-one has gone before, these tenacious individuals
are taking on the responsibility of standing in most, and in one case every
ward in a metro council. Cape Town has the majority of these brave and
tenacious people, one person standing in 93, and another in 90 wards of the 116
total wards in Cape Town, but the hands down winner in this category is the
solitary candidate of the National People’s Party, who is standing in all 116
wards. Quite remarkable, and one has to admire the stamina needed!
Storyline: Chapter 4 – Is it
free, is it fair, or is it fraud?
If you have followed the storyline so far, you should at least be
asking the following question:
· If a political party candidate can only
ultimately represent a single ward in a municipality, how on earth can they be
allowed to stand as a ward councillor candidate in more than one ward? An
independent candidate is restricted to a single ward, so why not party
candidates?
By not banning this practice the IEC is disadvantaging independent
candidates who must rely on a single ward vote to be successful. A
multiple-ward party candidate is unlikely to win every ward, but however many
votes they attract will potentially reduce an independent candidate’s possible
voting pool.
The IEC is also allowing the PR system itself to be corrupted through
the acceptance of ward votes for what are essentially “phantom” ward
candidates. The best example is again in Cape Town where, based on the 2011
election results, it will only require around 18 people per constituency to
cast votes in their direction either deliberately, or inadvertently through
mistaken identity, and a PR seat could be awarded to any of the “also-ran”
parties.
This fundamental flaw in our electoral system reduces the whole PR
seat allocation to a lottery, where the ticket price is R3700, and the jackpot
stands at around R2.5m in salary alone over the five year term.
In my view it is not only unfair, but also unconstitutional that
political parties are allowed to cheat the system in a way that is tantamount
to electoral fraud. What has the IEC been doing with itself all this time? How
to handle the situation in the short-term is up for debate, but ultimately the
system has to change. If it doesn’t, I advise everyone in the country to co-operate
in registering individual political parties. Let’s see if they can fit around
1m parties on a local government ballot paper next time around.
