Online Reporter
Edwin Ndlovu, [email protected]
As the nation continues to debate Constitutional Amendment Bill (No 3), the issue of the most suitable electoral system has taken centre stage.
There are two schools of thought regarding the election of the President by Parliament. In Zimbabwe, just like it is globally, the debate on the most suitable electoral system continues. While some countries choose the Proportional Representation (PR) system, others prefer the First-Past-The-Post (F-P-T-P) system. Moreover, as some African countries use the party system, others prefer the Presidential system.
This article recommends that African countries revisit their current electoral systems, considering their local contexts. During the country’s Constitution-making process from 2010 to 2013, I was one of the rapporteurs deployed to the Midlands province. Due to its size, the Midlands province had 10 teams, starting from Dolo Business Centre in Mberengwa up to Simtshembo 2 in Gokwe.
Consultations took three good months. My task was to deliver two key issues among many others. I knew that all progressive forces were going to push for the Bill of Rights and I did not concentrate much on that but Devolution of Power and Proportional Representation as an electoral system.
Bheki Mngomezulu, in his 2019 journal titled “Assessing the Suitability of the Proportional Representation as an electoral system”, asserts that PR is a system that elects multiple representatives in proportion to the number of people who vote for them. If one-third of voters back a political party, the party’s candidates win roughly one-third of the seats. Mngomezulu argues that today, proportional representation is the most common electoral system among the world’s democracies.
Robert Blackburn, in his book, The Electoral System in Britain, says many European countries and Australia use the PR system. In Southern Africa, South Africa has used this system since 1994. Among other things, this system relates the allocation of seats as closely as possible to the distribution of votes. Some see this as a fair electoral system, which addresses the challenges of proportionality associated with single-member constituencies that either use plurality or majoritarian systems.
The PR system is transparent because the quota is decided openly, indicating how many votes the candidate or party needs to get a seat. Another advantage of this electoral system is that even smaller parties have a chance to be represented in Parliament, even if they have only one seat. This has been the case in South Africa, where Themba Godi’s African People’s Congress (APC) had one seat in the National Assembly but presided over the critical Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa). When voting on a motion, a party with one seat could sway the vote to either side. Therefore, the PR electoral system empowers all political parties.
In our case, the PR system will promote national cohesion and promote unity and national development. We have seen political parties spending millions of dollars on presidential campaigns alone, leaving council and parliamentary candidates struggling to raise funds for their campaigns.
This also exposes female and youth candidates without financial muscle. But when using the proportional representation system, the parties will use their gender and youth policies to make sure that they achieve the women’s and youth quotas.
Electing the President in Parliament reduces the likelihood of violence during campaigns. Political parties are not personalised, as voters would be voting for party ideologies and not individual political leaders. Voting for individual political leaders has often resulted in voters just voting for anyone, even those without capacity, because he or she “belong” to a presidential candidate of their choice.
Proportional representation is not in itself a system for elections, but rather a criterion upon which to evaluate the working of any one range of electoral systems, which can be used for voting purposes. It is a principle or yardstick by which to test the degree of representative proportionality between citizens’ votes and successful party candidates. More precisely, what is looked for is the percentage equivalent between the total national votes cast for the respective parties’ candidates and the number of seats won by the parties in Parliament.
During Copac, proportional representation was very popular among citizens. Most, if not all, Members of Parliament who were leading the process did not support it then, as they feared that their political parties would choose other candidates ahead of them, but in essence, it promotes even discipline in political parties.
Proponents of proportional representation believe that there should be a direct and close correlation between total votes cast for each party across the country at a general election and the number of seats won by each party in Parliament. If parliamentarians vote for the President, he/she would be respected by parliamentarians as the President would be carrying their mandate.
In South Africa, we have seen Julius Malema contesting against Cyril Ramaphosa in Parliament for the presidency and after the elections, Malema congratulated Ramaphosa, telling him what his EFF party expects the president to do for the nation; therefore, PR promotes nationhood, unity and progression. A nation which fails to respect its institutions never prospers.
In 2000, Cde Dumiso Dabengwa lost the Nkulumane constituency to Gibson Sibanda when both leaders could have been in parliament if we were using proportional representation as an electoral system. The David Coltart vs Thabitha Khumalo and Professor Welshman Ncube vs Dr Thokozani Khuphe scenarios are other examples of the disadvantages of using the First-Past-The-Post system.
Reforming a country’s election system from plurality to proportional representation has wide-ranging positives: it impacts candidates’ electoral strategies, the number of parties that win legislative seats, their degree of internal discipline, and the relationship between the executive and legislature.
The legislature crafts laws which are implemented by the Executive and interpreted by the Judiciary, hence the importance of having a vibrant Parliament consisting of the youth, men and women of integrity and capacity.
*Edwin Ndlovu is the deputy mayor of Bulawayo. He writes in his personal capacity.
