The Constitutional Court orders Parliament to institute electoral reform
12 June 2020
In an historic judgement yesterday, the Constitutional Court upheld the appeal of New Nation and others against the judgement last year of the Western Cape High Court regarding the right of individuals to stand as independent candidates in national and provincial elections.
The Court declared that “the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 is unconstitutional to the extent that it requires that adult citizens may be elected to the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures only through their membership of political parties.” It ordered Parliament to remedy this defect within the next 24 months - in time for the next national and provincial elections.
The Western Cape High Court dismissed New Nation’s constitutional challenge in April 2019 on the basis that section 19(3)(b) of the Constitution does not specifically refer to independent candidates as opposed to members of a political party.
In its original case in the Western Cape High Court, New Nation relied on Chief Justice Moegoeng’s remarks in the 2018 Constitutional Court judgment of My Vote Counts NPC v Minister of Justice and Correctional Services and Another (My Vote counts) to the effect that the Electoral Act was unconstitutional to the extent it did not give effect to section 19(3)(b) of the Constitution.