Need For Electoral Law Revision

FOR some time now, there has been talk, in Parliament and elsewhere, about revising Namibia’s electoral laws, particularly with a view to bringing in a mixed electoral system.

It was given further impetus this week, when a former MP and top official with the Electoral Commission, Professor Gerhard Totemeyer, said that legislation could be amended before the next elections in December 2009. He said that a study would be commissioned soon to look at the existing Electoral Act and to propose changes where necessary.If this is completed by the first quarter of 2007, it would go to the legal drafters, whereafter a Cabinet committee tasked with legal matters, would examine the draft.It should also, of course, be put up for public scrutiny and input.These recommendations, once completed, would then be turned into a Bill for presentation to parliament, roughly a year from that date.There would certainly be merit in Namibia revising electoral laws to make provision for a mixed electoral system.Proportional representation has certainly served the country well, and it usually does in countries where it is in force, as it tends to give voice to the smaller and more marginalised political parties and groupings in society.But it has its downside as well.Simplistically speaking, proportional representation allocates votes to parties rather than persons, and it therefore runs the risk of bringing into being a government which owes its allegiance to the party which brought it to power, rather than the people who voted.Accountability to the people, therefore is often absent, and this has been a criticism which has been levelled at Swapo, as the only political group that has held power in this country since independence in 1990.There have been political analysts who have over the years argued for a mixed system in order to make political leaders more accountable to the people.Professor Totemeyer speaks of a possibility of having a system in which 50 per cent of the vote comes from party lists; and the other 50 per cent from a ward, or constituency system.This could happen at both national, regional and municipal level, and it is possible, if properly done and explained to the people beforehand, that it would bring about stronger accountability as far as politicians at all levels of governance are concerned.It is, in short, worth the effort to conduct this exercise, but it is also very important that the population as a whole be made to understand the rationale behind such a move, otherwise it could serve to cause great confusion.Proportional representation is a very simple system.A voter simply marks his or her cross next to the political party of their choice; a mixed system would mean voting for both people and parties.The Electoral Commission, one could argue, is a permanently sitting body, which probably has very little to do in between elections in this country, and there is no reason why they cannot start work immediately to get discussion going among the electorate on these important issues, and the prepare the way for possible changes and/or reform of the Electoral Act.It is something that should not be left to the last minute before approving amendments and putting into law without opening the issue up to wider public debate.If revisions to the Electoral Act serve to enhance accountability of politicians to the electorate rather than the party which brought them to power, already a lot will have been achieved by the change.He said that a study would be commissioned soon to look at the existing Electoral Act and to propose changes where necessary.If this is completed by the first quarter of 2007, it would go to the legal drafters, whereafter a Cabinet committee tasked with legal matters, would examine the draft.It should also, of course, be put up for public scrutiny and input.These recommendations, once completed, would then be turned into a Bill for presentation to parliament, roughly a year from that date.There would certainly be merit in Namibia revising electoral laws to make provision for a mixed electoral system.Proportional representation has certainly served the country well, and it usually does in countries where it is in force, as it tends to give voice to the smaller and more marginalised political parties and groupings in society.But it has its downside as well.Simplistically speaking, proportional representation allocates votes to parties rather than persons, and it therefore runs the risk of bringing into being a government which owes its allegiance to the party which brought it to power, rather than the people who voted.Accountability to the people, therefore is often absent, and this has been a criticism which has been levelled at Swapo, as the only political group that has held power in this country since independence in 1990.There have been political analysts who have over the years argued for a mixed system in order to make political leaders more accountable to the people.Professor Totemeyer speaks of a possibility of having a system in which 50 per cent of the vote comes from party lists; and the other 50 per cent from a ward, or constituency system.This could happen at both national, regional and municipal level, and it is possible, if properly done and explained to the people beforehand, that it would bring about stronger accountability as far as politicians at all levels of governance are concerned.It is, in short, worth the effort to conduct this exercise, but it is also very important that the population as a whole be made to understand the rationale behind such a move, otherwise it could serve to cause great confusion.Proportional representation is a very simple system.A voter simply marks his or her cross next to the political party of their choice; a mixed system would mean voting for both people and parties.The Electoral Commission, one could argue, is a permanently sitting body, which probably has very little to do in between elections in this country, and there is no reason why they cannot start work immediately to get discussion going among the electorate on these important issues, and the prepare the way for possible changes and/or reform of the Electoral Act.It is something that should not be left to the last minute before approving amendments and putting into law without opening the issue up to wider public debate.If revisions to the Electoral Act serve to enhance accountability of politicians to the electorate rather than the party which brought them to power, already a lot will have been achieved by the change.