THE FIRST DEMOCRATIC MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

Before we look at the new electoral system, let's first refresh our memories about how the voting worked in the 1995-96 municipal elections.

The election of municipal councillors in the first democratic elections combined two electoral systems: the "first-past-the-post" system for wards and the proportional representation, or party list system.

The two systems ran parallel in urban areas, where citizens could vote for both a ward candidate in a straight first-past-the-post election and for the political party of their choice. Ward councillors made up 60% of the seats on local councils, while the remaining 40% were allocated to proportional representation councillors. In this system only 40% of the seats were therefore allocated on a purely proportional basis.

Metropolitan areas
In the 1995-96 election, voters living in metropolitan areas had two votes. They voted for ward candidates (60% of the seats), who represented them on metropolitan local councils, and for political parties (40% of the seats).

Councillors then elected people from among themselves to represent their substructure at metro level on the metro council. These people became metropolitan councillors.

Urban areas
In other urban areas outside metropolitan areas, citizens living in big towns also had two votes: one for ward candidates (60% of the seats) and the other for political parties (40% of the seats). The councils established were referred to as transitional local councils (TLCs).

Small municipalities
However, in TLCs that were too small to have wards, citizens only had one vote. With it, they could vote for the political party of their choice. Only the proportional representation system applied in these areas, and councillors were drawn from party lists to serve communities on their local council.

Rural councils
Citizens in rural areas were also able to elect their own councillors to serve on transitional representative councils (TrepCs) or transitional rural councils (TRCs). The proportional representation system also applied in these areas.

District councils
The above mentioned TLCs, TRCs and TRepCs were able to appoint representatives on to a secondary or regional tier of local government, called district councils. Citizens did not vote for district councillors.

Remaining areas
In rural areas where it was not possible to have primary tier local government - called "remaining areas" - citizens had one vote to elect councillors by proportional representation to serve directly on district councils.