POLOKWANE – On 8 May, South Africans all across the country will vote in the sixth national and provincial elections. These are held every five years and in terms of the constitution, elections must be held within 90 days of the expiry of the sitting of National Assembly and Provincial Legislature.

Before going to the polls, it is important to know the difference between national and provincial elections as they are two different elections, held on the same day:

Your national vote means you are electing a political party to represent you in the National Assembly. Your provincial vote means you are electing a political party to represent you in Provincial Legislature.

So now that you have an understanding of the difference between the two, it’s best you understand the electoral system used during elections too:

• The system used is called the Proportional Representation system and that awards seats to political parties according to the percentage of votes each party receives.
• Political parties submit a list of candidates to the IEC for the National Assembly as well as Provincial Legislature, of which, they are listed in order of preference.

Seats in parliament are therefore allocated depending on the percentage of votes a political party receives. The more votes they receive, the more seats they get and vice versa.

But what are the advantages and disadvantages of this system?

An advantage is that the system makes sure smaller political parties are included and represented and therefore you have a legislature made up of people with different interests. However, the system does not allow voters to directly elect their political representatives to legislature as political parties decide who will represent voters. Therefore, the extent of accountability is weaker between the voter and political representatives.

So now that you have a better understanding, are you ready to make your mark?

raeesak@nmgroup.co.za