SA Rocks

South Africa partakes in Party-list proportional representation (PR).

What is that? Let’s hear from Wikipedia shall we:

The parties each list their candidates according to that party’s determination of priorities. In a closed list, voters vote for a list, not a candidate. Each party is allocated seats in proportion to the number of votes, using the ranking order on its list. In an open list, voters may vote, depending on the model, for one person, or for two, or indicate their order of preference within the list.

SA operates on a closed list system which means we vote for a single candidate, not two, three or so on as stated above.

Let’s get more specific about proportional representation. Basically it is what it states it is. Representation within government according to the proportion of votes that a party receives. In SA it is of utmost importance that the volume of votes remains high. Why? Because of the 65% policy that we have.

In the last elections the ANC won over 65% of the votes that were cast. This means that the party and by proxy the president of the nation would be able to alter the constitution as they see fit. This is not a good thing and is looked upon by some as a failing of the PR system as one party has complete dominance. But this is not really the case.

Thanks to the PR system there are seats in parliament allocated to other parties that have won votes. Parties such as the DA, IFP, SACP and others are all represented in government. Even if a party wins a single seat in parliament, in SA’s PR system that means that the particular faction of people who voted for that party are actually represented in government.

On other, more simple terms, this means that if you actually have the energy and take the time to vote you will, certifiably, be represented in parliament if your party wins enough votes to ensure they are allocated a seat in parliament.

To put this in to context we can use the American system called First Past the Post (FTPT) voting. In a nutshell this means that there are (basically) two parties that are in the running for the presidency and government, the Republicans and the Democrats. in the US you can vote for one of the two parties. That’s it.

Couple the lack of options with the lack of voters and you have a massive unrepresented faction of the US people in government. If you are one of 15% of people in the US who vote Republican, 17% vote Democrat and the rest either didn’t vote or voted “undecided” then you are pot out of luck. Why? Because the Democrats with their 17% have won the election. All of it. Parliament, cabinet, ministers and the rest are all Democrats. The other 83% of the population are not represented at all, irrespective of their vote.

Whereas in SA, if you vote there is a very strong chance that no matter who actually wins the election your interests will be represented in government or parliament.

There is a list of other countries that use the PR system over at Wikipedia.

So what I am trying to say is go and vote.

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