SA needs widely acceptable elections boss by Steven Friedman, 17 December 2014, 06:41 ELECTIONS give a voice to the majority. But if we want them to be taken seriously the minority needs a say too. If we care about democracy’s immediate future we will focus much more attention on a decision that needs to be taken in the new year — the appointment of a new chairman of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to replace Pansy Tlakula. First a new IEC commissioner must be appointed by Parliament from eight names submitted to it. Then the president must appoint a new IEC head. How the appointment is made is probably more important than who is appointed. This procedure could enable the African National Congress (ANC) to decide alone who will run the IEC — it can use its parliamentary majority to appoint the new commission member and the president can appoint his chosen person to head it. In theory opposition parties would be consulted — in practice, they would be ignored. But if the decision is taken in this way it will compromise one of democracy’s key strengths — the credibility of our elections. The ANC’s majority gives it the right to make many appointments, a point that seems largely lost on government opponents who seem to want all appointments to be made by judges, technical specialists, professional associations — anyone except the representatives of most voters. This betrays a deep distrust of democracy — while any citizen is entitled to disagree with specific appointments it is a core democratic principle that a mandate from most voters entitles the government to make these choices. But if democracy is to work as it should there are some appointments in which minority parties must be equal partners: head of the electoral commission is first among them. It has become common to insist that democracy is about more than elections — citizens are meant to enjoy the right to decide between elections too. But democracy is also impossible unless citizens feel they can vote freely and that each vote will be counted: ideally, every citizen should feel this way. As this column has argued before, the citizens who must be convinced that elections are run fairly are those who support minority parties — for obvious reasons, winners never need to be convinced that election results are fair. This means that whoever runs elections must enjoy the confidence of minority parties and the voters who support them. This is why democracy is threatened when the decision on who is to run elections is left to the majority party alone — unless minority parties are happy with the choice the elections and the mandate for the governing party that they produce will not be accepted as legitimate. If elections are not credible the democratic system itself is likely to be seen as a sham. Though this is so in every democracy there is an extra reason minority parties should enjoy an equal say in the appointment of the new head of the IEC. Until a while ago one of democracy’s key foundations here was the credibility of the IEC and the elections it ran — losers accepted that the results accurately reflected voters’ choices. But now that credibility has been questioned. The key event that compromised its credibility was the by-elections in Tlokwe in the North West province. Independent candidates produced strong evidence of serious irregularities that prompted opposition parties to question the IEC’s fairness. Because a cloud hangs over the IEC, we urgently need a clear statement that our elections will remain free and fair. Imposing a new IEC head on all the parties will send the opposite message and the credibility of our elections will be under even greater threat. Only if a candidate is chosen after an agreement between the governing and most opposition parties is the appointment likely to restore the credibility of our elections. But if democracy needs opposition party support for the new appointment, why is this in the ANC’s interests? Isn’t it naive to expect it not to impose a choice as this will give it a handy advantage at the polls? There are at least two reasons the ANC may have a reason to avoid imposing an IEC chairman. First, if the IEC loses the support of minority parties they can challenge its rulings in court, so whoever is appointed will not be able simply to impose decisions on the parties: court action will damage the credibility of the IEC and the ANC. Second, the more the credibility of the political system is undermined the harder it becomes to govern. A governing party that sacrifices the credibility of elections may win a shortlived advantage but is likely to suffer long-term damage as citizens distrust it and find ways to frustrate it. These points give the ANC an incentive to allow a critical mass of minority parties an equal say in appointing the IEC chair. Whether or not this happens the appointment process must be carefully watched because it will decide whether our elections continue to enjoy credibility. Unless the new IEC chair enjoys the support of most opposition parties, democracy here risks losing one of its key assets. • Friedman is director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 05:53:31 +0000
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