Electoral Reform

Single party dominance has undermined our hard-won young democracy and allowed corruption to become entrenched at all levels of government. At a national and provincial level, citizens can only vote for a party and have no direct say in which individuals are elected to positions. This prevents citizens from holding politicians to account, and corrupt and incompetent politicians are able to hold positions of power for many years if their party refuses to act against them.

This is coupled with increasing efforts by unscrupulous political actors and potential foreign interests to undermine and influence our young democracy using misinformation, and manipulation. The discontent with and failure of South Africa’s political system is most vividly witnessed in voter turnouts, with only 42% of eligible voters casting a vote in the 2024 general elections. We need to fix our electoral system, protect our democracy and restore faith in the political system so that more South Africans feel compelled and confident to vote.

What We Believe

The Party List System prioritises representation in the Legislative arm of government at the expense of direct accountability, and serves the interest of career politicians over the interests of the people.
South Africans should have a direct say in electing their Public Representatives through a mixed electoral system that combines proportional representation with a constituency-based system.
Political Polling must be conducted transparently so voters can make informed choices.

Our Solutions Blueprint

To increase the accountability of members of ActionSA, we will:

Conduct periodical lifestyle audits for all ActionSA public office bearers, and ad-hoc audits as deemed necessary by the party.
Use comprehensive monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure that our public representatives are accountable to the communities that elect them.
Remove and replace public representatives that fail to deliver on the electoral mandate, with a new candidate selected by the community.

To increase the accountability of public representatives, we will:

Advocate for a mixed electoral system where 50% of Parliament seats are elected through the proportional list system, and the other 50% is elected through a constituency-based system. We have made several submissions to the Electoral Reform panel in this regard. [link]
Support the Constitutional Court judgement allowing independent candidates to stand for election and work with these candidates whenever feasible.
Implement accessible online systems that allow citizens to participate in the political process more efficiently.
Make additional funds available for voter education to ensure that citizens understand and exercise their democratic rights.

To ensure election integrity, we will:

Introduce legislation that creates the Office of the Polling Ombud to provide greater oversight of polling in the country.
Ensure that all polls that are published display methodologies used, sponsors and other relevant information so that voters can make informed choices.

Restore the credibility of the legislative arm of government, we will:

We will advocate to amend the Rules of Parliament to discourage unruly behaviour and promote productive debate. Parliament must be a place where ideas can be contested, and where solutions that are in the best interest of all South Africans can be agreed upon.
To ensure that the public interest, not party-political interests, is the driving force of government, we will lobby for cooperation between political parties and adopt a collaborative attitude in our dealings with other political parties.

ActionSA introduces Election Integrity Bill to protect Democracy:

Political opinion polling plays a significant role in shaping public perception, guiding media coverage, influencing campaign strategies, and ultimately affecting voting behaviour. However, in the absence of clear and formal regulation to prevent the concealment of methodological flaws or undisclosed sponsorships, the publication of such polls often leads to the dissemination of unverifiable or manipulated data.

These practices have increasingly been used by unscrupulous political actors and potential foreign interests as tools for misinformation, manipulation, and electoral interference in our young democracy.

Currently, South Africa lacks specific legal provisions governing the conduct, publication, and dissemination of political opinion polling during or before election periods. This places us behind countries such as Brazil, Canada, France and Italy who all have regulations for political polling.

To address this legal vacuum, the Election Integrity Bill seeks to amend the Electoral Commission Act, and the Electoral Act to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for political opinion polling in line with international best practice.

The Bill seeks to:

Enhance election integrity by requiring all published polls to disclose sponsors, methodologies, and other relevant information;
Establish the Office of the Polling Ombud as an independent oversight body within the Electoral Commission to regulate political and exit polling;
Prohibit the publication of political opinion polls related to an election within seven days prior to voting day.

ActionSA invites members of the public, civil society organisations, and other interested stakeholders to submit written comments on the draft Bill.

Submissions can be sent to the Speaker of the National Assembly,
New Assembly Building, Parliament Street, Cape Town, 8001;

or posted to P.O. Box 15, Cape Town, 8000;

or emailed to speaker@parliament.gov.za and copied to parliament@actionsa.org.za.