Elections 2021: Independent candidates good for democracy, but ‘not a solution’

Political analysts believe the proliferation of independent candidates and political parties is both good and bad for democracy.

According to Prof Dirk Kotzé, the general public feeling could be that the increase in the number of independents who entered the 2021 local government election was good for democracy.

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That may be so, but independent candidates often get compromised by being co-opted to take sides with the various political blocs in council, he warns.

“Independent candidature does not mean independent decision-making by these individuals because ultimately they will be forced become part of the blocs and vote according to the bloc positions. They will lose their independence in council,” Kotze says.

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He cites the example of an independent from a civic movement who was elected at Metsimaholo in Sasolburg in northern Free State, who moved between the ANC and the DA positions because he was caught between the two blocs.

Independents are prone to deviate from their individual positions to go with a particular bloc at a particular time.

Similarly, smaller parties get used by the bigger parties in council to achieve their objectives such as gaining power.

Political analyst Sanusha Naidu is not optimistic about the high number of political parties that had entered the 2021 local government election.

“For me the proliferation of political parties does not mean our democracy is strengthening. It doesn’t mean our democracy is consolidating. It just means that our democracy has allowed for disingenuous multipartism,” she says.

To merely satisfy IEC requirements is no yardstick to be better than the ruling party.

If you measure yourself against the ANC, it’s such a low base, a party that has virtually imploded, she says.

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Naidu says the lack of imagination in manifestos is also frustrating and recent campaigning was close to theatrics.

“Democracy has become a circus.”

This did not mean nothing good could come of it. The voter turn-out would be interesting, as would be the number of spoilt votes, she says.

Kotzé says the “growth of independent candidates this time around could be attributed to the fact that many people don’t trust the existing parties”.

– ericn@citizen.co.za