Tracking the Electoral Reform Legislation in Parliament (2022)

02 March 2022

Tracking the Electoral Reform Legislation in Parliament (2022)

Parliament is currently working with the Department of Home Affairs to reform legislation that will allow independent candidates to contest national and provincial elections.

This comes after the June 11 2020 Constitutional Court decision that "declared the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 unconstitutional to the extent that it requires that adult citizens may only be elected to the National Assembly (NA) and Provincial Legislatures (PLs) only through their membership of political parties."

Further, the Constitutional Court directed Parliament to rectify the defective sections of the Electoral law within a period of 24 months; that is from June 2020 to June 2022.

In response to the Constitutional Court judgement, the Minister of Home Affairs established a Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) to explore a variety of options and hear from a range of stakeholders. Cabinet considered and approved the submission of the Report of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Electoral System Reform to Parliament on 24 November 2021.

The Electoral Amendment Bill (B1-2022) was introduced in Parliament on 10 January 2022. You can track the bill's processing here

On 15 February 2022, the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs released its legislative programme for the Electoral Amendment Bill. You can find it here. From 7 to 23 March, the Committee scheduled provincial public hearings on the Bill. Find programme here.

On 26 April 2022, Parliament filed papers with the Constitutional Court requesting a six-month extension of the deadline for the finalisation of the amendment of the Electoral Act. The extension was granted on 10 June and the new deadline was 10 December 2022.

On 1 September 2022, the National Assembly granted the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs permission to extend the scope of the Electoral Amendment Bill.

On 20 October, the Bill was passed by the National Assembly and transmitted to the NCOP for concurrence. The NCOP subsequently amended and passed the Bill on 29 November and returned it to the National Assembly for concurrence.

In December 2022, Parliament lodged an urgent application to the Constitutional Court requesting that it be granted a further extension to finalise the Bill – from 10 December 2022 until 28 February 2023. The apex court issued an interim order, to further extend its declaration of invalidity order deadline for the Electoral Act until 31 January to allow it more time to consider the request to extend the deadline to 28th February to allow Parliament to finalise the Bill- which seeks to amend the Act.

On 23 January 2023, the Constitutional Court granted Parliament’s request to further extend the deadline for the finalisation of the Electoral Amendment Bill until 28 February 2023.

On 10 February 2023, the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs adopted the Electoral Amendment Bill and recommended that the Bill be passed by the National Assembly.

On 23 February 2023, the National Assembly passed the Bill and referred it to the President for assent.

On 16 April 2023, the Bill was signed and assented to by President Ramaphosa and became Act 1 of 2023. It came into effect two months later, on 19 June 2023.

Sample of the written submissions sent to Parliament: