IEC asks Parliament to keep the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill alive

The Independent Electoral Commission has asked Parliament to keep processing the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill even if it cannot be passed before the 4 November local government elections. As IOL reported on 23 September, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Sheburi told the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee that several of the bill’s provisions will matter more after the elections than during them.

“We need it more in those instances than we would in the November 4 elections,” Sheburi told the committee, referring to by-elections and the work that follows a general election cycle.

The bill amends three pieces of law: the Electoral Commission Act, the Electoral Act and the Municipal Electoral Act. Its provisions touch party registration, the Electoral Court, how notices are served, voter registration details, objections to the voters’ roll, and candidate nomination deadlines.

One of the most consequential changes concerns parties that are registered but hold no seats in a council, a legislature or Parliament. Under the proposal, those parties would have to renew their registration every year. A party that misses the cut-off would automatically fall off the register of parties. Sheburi said this would spare the commission the cost of defending deregistration decisions in court.

He described the target as “shelf parties” that do not give notice of their continued existence. “It is a requirement that all parties not represented must give notice that they continue to exist. If they give notice, the commission will not touch their registration,” he said. IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya framed the intent plainly: “We want the Act to ensure that the deregistration happens by application of the law.”

On funding, Sheburi reminded the committee that all parties are already required under the Political Party Funding Act to account for money received and for donors to make disclosures. MPs asked whether the bill does enough on accountability for unrepresented parties.

The bill also proposes changes to the Electoral Court. It would increase the number of judges and allow the court to sit in different sessions. The Judge President, in consultation with the Justice Minister, would compile a list of additional members made up of non-judges with relevant experience. MPs questioned why the Judicial Services Commission is excluded from that recommendation process. Home Affairs Department legal advisor Advocate Moses Malakate said the department had noted the removal and would look for the reason behind it.

Other provisions are administrative but practical. The bill removes registered post and telegram as ways to serve notices, keeping email and personal service. “We are retaining the electronic mail as well as serving in person to bring it in line with modern forms of service,” Sheburi said. It also requires voters to give sufficient detail of their ordinary residence when registering, and sets out how privacy rights and personal information apply to the voters’ roll.

On objections, Sheburi described one amendment as the most consequential of all. Objections would be allowed only against the provisionally compiled voters’ roll. Once the objection period lapses and the roll is certified, it can be used for an election. He also noted that only parties whose registration is final on the day of proclamation can nominate candidates, and that there is a 30-day window for objections once a party is registered.

Committee chairperson Mosa Chabane said the timetable was too tight to consider the bill before the elections. “We will subject the bill to public participation for comment,” he said.

For ordinary voters, the immediate effect is that the November 4 local government elections will run under the current rules. The changes being discussed would shape the by-elections and registration cycles that follow, and the way the commission handles parties that exist on paper but not in any council chamber. Parliament’s public participation process is the next step, and the bill’s passage depends on that process and the committee’s schedule.