Abstract
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, prescribes an electoral system “that results in proportional representation”, which has been in use for both provincial and national elections since 1994.
However, in 2020, the New Nation Movement, a civil society organisation, in the case New Nation Movement NPC and Others v President of the Republic of South and Others 2020 6 SA 257 (CC), It challenged the electoral system for unfairly and unreasonably preventing independent candidates, from standing for public office, and if elected to hold office. running for office and being elected. In the court’s view, this exclusion prevented voters from having a direct link to provincial and national representatives who can be accountable to them directly.
This study focuses on the ConCourt ruling, taking cognisance of elections malpractice, one-party dominance and voter dynamics in South Africa. In doing so, the researcher seeks to understand whether the ConCourt was correct in declaring certain parts of the Electoral Act unconstitutional, to the extent that it unfairly and unreasonably excluded independent candidates from standing for public office and to hold office; and thereby called for electoral reform in South Africa. Furthermore, the researcher investigates whether the electoral commission, parliament and other stakeholders, could find suitable solutions to this conundrum before the general national elections to be held in 2024.