The Ministerial Advisory Committee on the electoral system held its first consultative meeting with stakeholders on the 30th of March 2021. The Inclusive Society Institute (ISI) was invited to present their proposal as contained in its report “Proposed Electoral Model for South Africa”.
The institute was represented by its Chief Executive Officer, Daryl Swanepoel, and the convenor of the expert panel established by the ISI to develop the proposals.
The essence of the ISI’s proposal are:
A 400 -national assembly, 300 of which are elected via 66 Multi-Member Constituencies (MMC) and 100 elected via a compensatory proportional representation list.
MMCs are based on the boundaries of the current municipal district and metropolitan council, with a number of MMCs in each metropolitan area based on sub-council/sub-regional lines.
Party and independent candidates are able to participate for between 3 and 7 seats per MMC. This ensures multi-party representivity across the whole country, and greater accountability to the voters in that representative are accountable to electorate in particular MMCs.
The voting system is simple to understand and implement, with only one ballot paper for the national election and one paper for the provincial election.
The full proposal is available HERE
After considering the range of proposals made at the consultative forum, the institute is of the firm belief that it model is best suited for the current South African realities, and that the main tenets thereof will find its way into the new Electoral Act.