My Vote Counts calls for a meaningful public participation process towards finalising the Electoral Amendment Bill
14 June 2022
We welcome the Constitutional Court’s Order granting Parliament an extension from 10 June to 10 December 2022 to finalise the Electoral Amendment Bill. In its current form, the Amendment Bill is flawed, because its process has been marred by delays and a shallow public participation process.
Parliament requested the extension in April 2022, after realising that it did not properly deliberate the Bill and public participation was inadequate.
Considering these failures, it’s clear that there has been little political will to finalise this process. This is of serious concern considering that this is one of the most important legislative endeavours since the dawn of our democracy. The Bill could fundamentally change how we vote, who represents us and how decisions are made on our behalf.
The integrity, therefore, of the process in the next six months cannot afford to be jeopardised. Parliament cannot act in the same way that it did in the past two years. At the crux of the flawed process was the shallow public participation process. A group of civil society organisations have already written to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, stating the issues relating to public participation: