South Africa’s electoral law declared unconstitutional
South Africa's top court on Thursday declared as unconstitutional a section
of the electoral law which bars candidates from running for parliamentary seats
without political party affiliation.
The landmark ruling -- which will see voters in post-apartheid South Africa for the first time directly electing lawmakers -- came in response to a case brought by various civil society organisations.
"It is declared that the Electoral Act... is unconstitutional to the extent that it requires that adult citizens will be elected to the National Assembly and provincial legislature only through their membership of political parties," said Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
"Requiring citizens to exercise the right to contest elections and hold office only through political parties subverts (the constitution)," said the judge.
"The deficiency in the Electoral Act to the extent that it fails to enable adult South Africans to stand as individuals is inconsistent with the constitution," he said.
Currently voters cast ballots for political parties.
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Using a proportional representation system, the number of votes cast for each party will determine the number of seats it gets in parliament.
Each party will then distribute the seats to a list of pre-selected members.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC), in power since the end of apartheid in 1994, won last year's legislative elections with 57.5 percent of the ballots cast.
The centre right Democratic Alliance came second after it garnered 20.7 percent and the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters took the third largest number of seats after it won 10.7 percent of the votes.
Former DA leader Mmusi Maimane tweeted that the "judgement is going to change the game. It is going to give more power to the people, more flexibility to those who want to serve without the drama of some of these old organizations. This is freedom".
