Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane says the Electoral Amendment Bill doesn't honour the principles in the Freedom Charter.
In a statement earlier Maimane said they reject the bill because it’s unconstitutional and members of Parliament rubber-stamped a government-sponsored bill that makes it near impossible for independents to stand alone and win elections.
“This is in contrast to the spirit of the New Nation Movement order by the Constitutional Court in June 2020, which found the Electoral Act to be unconstitutional,” he said.
Speaking to CapeTalk Radio station Maimane described the passing of the Electoral Amendment Bill as malicious and compliant with constitutional judgement.
“I say that because if we were running a Comrades Marathon, what Parliament did on Thursday said to independents you can also run but you can run barefoot or backwards but hopefully we will see you at the end of the line,” Maimane said.
Maimane further took a huge dig at the Electoral Amendment Bill by saying: “As things stand at the moment, citizens literally have no power over Parliament in essence because it is immaterial what citizens can raise if the party disagrees or whatever and then the matter stops.”
“In a constituency based system where people could directly vote for someone we would then indeed put up a serious fight in things like State Capture.”
He further questioned the issue of voter education and claimed that this demonstrates that Parliament failed to respond to the essence of citizens in the last two-years and started to scramble in the last six months.
‘’Voters won’t know how to vote. Voting needs an education itself and 2024 probably you will have two balances. Now it will be the first people having two balances for national elections and previously they had one national and one provincial,’’ he said.
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