‘All systems go’: National Assembly speaker to be elected on Thursday

The National Assembly (NA) will hold a plenary sitting today to elect a new speaker. The position became vacant when President Ramaphosa appointed the previous speaker, Thandi Modise, as the new defence minister.

Modise has been in the position since 2019, following the sixth democratic elections. Parliament’s spokesperson, Moloto Mothapo, on Wednesday said the election of the new speaker will take place at 11 am.

Mothapo said it’s “all systems go” for the special sitting, and confirmed that the sitting will be held at two venues in the NA building – the NA Chamber and Committee Room E249 – due to Covid-19 protocols.

National Assembly speaker:

The voting process

Mothapo said four voting booths have been arranged and added: “If there is more than one nomination, Judge Hlophe will call for the voting process to be conducted by a way of a secret ballot”.

The entire voting process is expected to last about four hours, with one hour specifically dedicated to counting votes. The rules for the election in full can be read here.

The returning officer and assistant returning officers will remove the ballot boxes from the Chamber for the votes to be counted, in Judge Hlope’s presence.

“Only he and the designated returning officer and assistants to the returning officer may be present in the room. Once the votes have been counted, the returning officer must report to Judge Hlophe, informing him of the result of the counting of the votes”, Mothapo said.

Furthermore, the returning officer must retain the nomination papers, the used ballot papers and their counterfoils in a sealed packet for at least one year.

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NA Speaker’s responsibilities 

In terms of the Rules of the House, the NA Speaker has the responsibility of providing political leadership and strategic direction to the NA and to exercise impartiality in carrying out these duties. 

The NA, as the Constitution specifies, is elected to represent the people and to ensure government by the people under the Constitution.

The NA does this by choosing the President, by providing a national forum for public consideration of issues, by passing legislation and by scrutinising and overseeing executive action.

The Speaker may also become Acting President, in terms of the Constitution. This may happen if the President is out of the country or is otherwise unable to fulfil the duties of President.

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