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Business Day
(Johannesburg)
January 9,
2003
Summary:
Editorial supporting
a possible change
in South Africa from direct party list full representation (proportional
representation) to a system of mixed member full
representation.
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1259442-6078-0,00.html
Party List System Needs to Change
OPINION
By Wyndham Hartley
January 9, 2003
Johannesburg WHILE the
nation has been spared a call for an early election and the
resultant constitutional crisis in KwaZuluNatal, major election
issues are still unresolved. The most startling fact is that at
present there is no operational electoral law. The constitution made
provision for the direct proportional representation on a party list
system to be used in 1999, but after that a new electoral law had to
be devised and placed on the statute book. In pursuit of this
objective Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi established a
task team under Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert's leadership in May last
year. The task team held international roundtable conferences and
canvassed a wide range of opinion, including all the country's
political parties. It was clear through the process that the weight
of opinion was to move away from direct proportional representation
on party lists to a combination of constituency and proportional
representation systems. It is worth remembering that the work of
the task team comes against the backdrop of falling respect for
elected public representatives from their communities. One of the
critical issues facing the team was to design a system that would
put elected public representatives back in touch with the people who
voted for their party. The party list system makes them largely
responsible to the party hierarchy and not "the masses of the
people". Parties will argue that the compilation of the lists
through party structures from branches up to national structures
provides for the voice of ordinary people, but that surely is not
enough. There is no question that the party list proportional
representation system has served SA well in its first two democratic
elections. With the African National Congress getting more than 60%
of the popular vote in both these polls, it can easily be argued
that with a pure Westminster style "first past the post" system it
would have won almost all, if not all, the seats. There would have
been no opposition voice at all. While this would have spared us
the floor-crossing debacles of the past year or so, it simply would
have been bad for an emerging democracy to have no alternative voice
at all. The National Assembly, for instance, has 13 political
parties represented from the lowly Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging and
the Minority Front with solitary MPs, to the ANC with its 266. So,
while it is undoubtedly a comfort to those who cast opposition votes
to see some opposition MPs in the house, there also should be a
mechanism that provides for accountability on the ground. Hence the
combined system. The task team was clearly split. Buthelezi's
announcement that there was a majority report means that there was
also a minority report. Word is that most of the 12strong task team
favour a multiconstituency system combined with proportional
representation, while a handful opted for retaining the party list
proportional representation system used in 1994 and 1999. From the
participation of ANC representatives in the round table organised by
the Slabbert team it was clear that it did not favour changing the
system. Ironically the members of the team punting the status quo
line the ANC line, if you like were from the Independent Electoral
Commission (IEC). Apparently they did not argue the merits or
demerits of a system that brought MPs closer to the people, but
argued it simply would not be possible to get a new combined system
up and running in time for the next poll which must be held in the
first half of 2004. Quite why this should be so difficult is not
clear. It is not clear what the split proposed by the task team
would be and how many of the 400 MPs would be elected proportionally
and how many in multimember constituencies. If it is simply half and
half, this would mean many MPs who would comfortably have got onto
the electoral list in a party list system will now have to go back
to their communities and win nomination and election in order to
return to Parliament. Sounds all right to me and, after all, it
would be in keeping with the ANC's declared intention of taking
government closer to the people. Some tough choices lie ahead for
the ANC government. If, as is reliably understood, the task team has
recommended that the combined system is introduced in 2009, then the
practical arguments of the IEC fall away. There will have to be some
really good reasons not to make the electoral system more accountable. |
