DPLG

THE NEW LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTORAL SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION

Before the end of January 2001, elections for the first truly post-apartheid municipal councils based on united neighbourhoods will take place. This marks the end of a long process of transition and restructuring to arrive at the final model for local government.

Democratic elections are the biggest peacetime event a government undertakes. Elections affect every single person in a country as they determine who will run that country, province and municipality. They rely on the involvement of all citizens over the age of 18 and cost a large amount. So it is really important to get them right.

There is general agreement that one of the important building blocks for local transformation is representative and accountable government. This means that the way in which councillors are elected is crucial, as this will determine whether ordinary citizens feel that they have a stake in their councils and that councillors take their concerns seriously.

Our country has a very short history of democratic local government. For the vast majority of people, there has been no tradition of voting for local government representatives, or ensuring that councillors are accountable to communities and that councils are agencies for social and economic development.

However, the 1980s saw the development of a strong democratic culture at local level. Civic associations were established in many urban areas in the country. Civic leaders were democratically elected at community meetings, and charged with leading campaigns around "bread and butter" issues such as high rents for council houses and the lack of basic services.

The voter - guardian of democracy

The most important ingredient of any electoral system is the voter. Every citizen has the responsibility to vote and to ensure that his or her councillors and their political parties act in the best interests of all South Africans.

In the first phase of the transition to democracy (called the pre-interim phase), temporary councils made up of community representatives and councillors from White Local Authorities were appointed. These locally negotiated structures governed municipalities until the 1995-96 local elections.

The 1995-96 elections empowered all residents to vote for local representatives for the first time ever. These elections ushered in the "interim phase" of local government, with democratically elected councils - based on amalgamating previously white and black areas - but representation is still skewed in favour of "minorities" (usually, white, Indian and coloured areas except in the Western Cape, where there are fewer Africans than coloureds). True non-racialism has yet to be achieved. Thus, the new electoral system - which will take effect with the next local government elections - is designed to ensure greater representivity and accountability. It forms part of the final transformation of local government.

ELECTION SYSTEMS

There are three general systems of election, each with its advantages and disadvantages. South Africa has made use of all of them in various contexts.

·First past the post (the "Westminster" system)

In this system, candidates run against one another and the voter chooses a particular individual. The person with the most votes wins the seat. Such systems encourage personal accountability to voters and allow for a mix of independent and party candidates. The disadvantage of this system is that political parties are not represented in proportion to the number of votes cast for them. Smaller parties are particularly disadvantaged and often may not win any seats.

·Proportional representation

In a proportional representation system, parties elect their candidates and put up a list of candidates. Candidates are awarded seats from the top of the list, according to the number of seats won by a party. All parties that receive support are represented in proportion to that support. Those elected tend to be accountable to their party - and there is therefore a need for democracy within the party and for effectively functioning party offices and membership. There is no provision for independent candidates in this system, unless they group together to form an alliance.

·Combined systems

Combination systems combine some ward or constituency representation with some proportional representation representation to try to achieve the best of both worlds. This is the system which will be used for local and metropolitan municipalities.

Back to Elections Table of Contents |