The Constitutional Court handed down judgments today (Monday) that set important rules for independent candidates in next year’s national election. Michael Louis, the chair of the Independent Candidates Association (ICA), was there. In this interview, he takes BizNews through the judgments and explains their implications. He predicts a scenario where an independent candidate needs to get 90,000 votes for a seat, but gets 67,000 votes and doesn’t get elected as a Member of Parliament, while a political party with 43,000 votes will get a seat. He says the big challenge now is that independent candidates will have to “really pick up the muster to prove their strength”. And he vows that ICA is going out “full steam to identify great leaders in all the provinces and then equip and train them to become independent candidates and politicians”. He already has 29 independent candidates “of very high profile” wanting to stand. – Chris Steyn
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Timestamps Below
00:08 – Introductions
00:38 – Michael Louis on the first judgements today
06:23 – Is the Judgement a big blow to the hopes of candidates who were waiting to decide whether they would risk standing
08:08 – On the second judgement
10:26 – if anyone were to stand as an independent candidate tomorrow, what would the simple process be
13:43 – Conclusions
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Edited Excerpt of the Interview
The Constitutional Court handed down judgments today (Monday) that set importants rules for independent candidates wishing to take part in next year’s national election. Michael Louis, the chair of the Independent Candidates Association of South Africa (ICA), was there.
He speaks to BizNews after a tense weekend of waiting for two important judgments. The one case – brought by ICA – dealt with independent candidates having to get double the votes of what a political party member needed to get.
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“…we always said that wasn’t fair rationality. So our arguments were based a lot on the rationality test, that the barriers to entry for an independent candidate were really not great…
“…the Con Court came out with a very comprehensive judgment saying that they believe that there is rationality, and the split of 200/200, 200 members direct and 200 members compensatory…that the Electoral Act as it stands passes that rationality test.”
Louis says he really believed and still believes that independent candidates “are not fairly treated and that political parties have got more rights than an independent candidate…”
He predicts that the big test is going to come in the 2024 elections. “…And please, BizNews, put it in your library because it’s going to happen. And it’s in our court papers, and I’d love to prove it. There are going to be facts that an independent candidate needs to get 90,000 votes for a seat and they get 67,000 votes and they don’t get elected as a Member of Parliament, but a political party with 43,000 votes will get a seat as a Member of Parliament. Now, that could never be fair for independent candidacy.”
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Nevertheless, Louis has a list of 29 independent candidates “of very high profile” wanting to stand. “Now, the big thing is I know that other political parties always say that don’t vote for a small party or don’t vote for one person, they’re not gonna make a difference. It’s not the truth…one person can make a difference.”
The other judgment dealt with the application with the Build One South Africa (Bosa) movement. “…in the past political parties always needed to get a thousand signatures to prove…that they’ve got a constituency that can vote for them. And…the new Electoral Act said that you need to get 15% of your previous quota in your regions because this election you’re gonna vote according to provinces and not according to national. And that caused some independent candidates and new political parties to get between 9,000 and 14,000 signatures.”
Louis points out that if it took five minutes for a person to get a signature, “it will take you to employ 50 people for six months” to be able to qualify on that whole issue of the signatory requirement.
“as a result the court…came out to say that they do believe that this is inconsistent with the Constitution…and that they will, for 26 months, suspend this clause, giving Parliament the opportunity to change it…and then allow that for this election, independent candidates and new political parties only need to get a thousand signatures as what we applied for. So in that judgment, we did win and in that judgment, obviously, it’s a great added bonus for independent candidates…”
Louis says ICA is now going out “full steam to identify great leaders in all the provinces and then equip and train them to become independent candidates and politicians”.
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