By Donwald Pressly
Published March 5th 2003 in News24
Cape Town - The South African Cabinet has accepted recommendations by an electoral task team that South Africa retain the current electoral system - for the 2004 elections.
At a post-cabinet briefing on Wednesday, cabinet spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said: "Cabinet has received and considered the report of the Electoral Task Team which was chaired by Dr (Frederik) van Zyl Slabbert to formulate parameters for a new electoral system.
"The meeting accepted the recommendations that the present composition of 400 seats in Parliament should be retained and that the current electoral system will apply for the 2004 elections.."
Legislation governing elections expired at the time of the last national and provincial elections in 1999. A new electoral law will be drawn up by the Home Affairs department and Netshitenzhe said this would be processed as a matter of urgency by Parliament.
He said the newly-elected government after 2004 would review the Slabbert report in preparation for the 2009 elections. The majority of the task team supported a multi-member constituency system for elections after 2004 while the minority supported the existing proportional representation system. - I-Net Bridge
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.